THE    SABBATH 


IN 


PURITAN    NEW    ENGLAND 


THE  SABBATH 


IN 


PURITAN    NEW    ENGLAND 


ALICE  MORSE  EARLE 


FIFTH   EDITION 


NEW    YORK 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

1892 


rfs- 


Copyright,  1891, 
BY  CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS. 


JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE. 


tjje  iJ&emorg  of  mg 


CONTENTS. 


PAOE 

~JL-  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE      ...  1 

II.  THE  CHURCH  MILITANT 19 

HI.  BY  DRUM  AND  HORN  AND  SHELL 26 

IV^  THE  OLD-FASHIONED  PEWS 33 

V.    SEATING  THE  MEETING 45 

VL__  THE   TlTHINGMAN  AND   THE   SLEEPERS      ...  66 

VII.    THE  LENGTH  OF  THE  SERVICE 77 

VIII.    THE    ICY   TEMPERATURE   OF    THE   MEETING- 
HOUSE    85 

IX.    THE  NOON-HOUSE 102 

X.    THE  DEACON'S  OFFICE 113 

XI.    THE  PSALM-BOOK  OF  THE  PILGRIMS    ....  125 

XII.    THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK 144 

XIII.  STERNHOLD   AND  HOPKINS*  VERSION   OF    THE 

PSALMS 172 

XIV.  OTHER  OLD  PSALM-BOOKS 188 

XV.    THE  CHURCH  Music     ....  202 


vm  CONTENTS. 

PMM 

XVI.    THE  INTERRUPTIONS  OF  THE  SERVICES  .    .     .  230 

XVII.    THE  OBSERVANCE  OP  THE  DAY 245 

XVIIL    THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE   CHURCH    AND  THE 

MINISTERS 259 

XIX.    THE  ORDINATION  OF  THE  MINISTER  ....  269 

XX.    THE  MINISTERS 281 

XXI.    THE  MINISTERS'  PAY 292 

XXII.    THE  PLAIN-SPEAKING  PURITAN  PULPIT  .    .     .  311 

XXIII.    THE  EARLY  CONGREGATIONS  .  321 


INDEX  329 


THE  SABBATH 


IN 


PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


L-  .',      ,         >,„.,,       .,,,„„      . 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE. 

WHEN  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  landed  at  Plymouth  they 
at  once  assigned  a  Lord's  Day  meeting-place  for  the 
Separatist  church,  —  "a  timber  fort  both  strong  and 
comely,  with  flat  roof  and  battlements ; "  and  to  this 
fort,  every  Sunday,  the  men  and  women  walked  rever- 
ently, three  in  a  row,  and  in  it  they  worshipped  until 
they  built  for  themselves  a  meeting-house  in  1648. 

As  soon  as  each  successive  outlying  settlement  was 
located  and  established,  the  new  community  built  a 
house  for  the  purpose  of  assembling  therein  for  the 
public  worship  of  God ;  this  house  was  called  a  meet- 
ing-house. Cotton  Mather  said  distinctly  that  he 
"  found  no  just  ground  in  Scripture  to  apply  such  a 
trope  as  church  to  a  house  for  public  assembly."  The 
church,  in  the  Puritan's  way  of  thinking,  worshipped 
in  the  meeting-house,  and  he  was  as  bitterly  opposed 
to  calling  this  edifice  a  church  as  he  was  to  calling 
the  Sabbath  Sunday.  His  favorite  term  for  that  day 
was  the  Lord's  Day. 

i 


2         THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

The  settlers  were  eager  and  glad  to  build  their 
meeting-houses ;  for  these  houses  of  God  were  to 
them  the  visible  sign  of  the  establishment  of  that 
theocracy  which  they  had  left  their  fair  homes  and 
had  come  to  New  England  to  create  and  perpetuate. 
But  lest  some  future  settlements  should  be  slow  or 
indifferent  about  doing  their  duty  promptly,  it  was 
enacted  in  1675vtIlaVa  meeting-house  should  be  erected 
in  -e very. 'tqw\n* ta  the*colony  ;  and  if  the  people  failed 
to  do  so  at  once,  the  magistrates  were  empowered  to 
build  it,  and  to  charge  the  cost  of  its  erection  to  the 
town.  The  number  of  members  necessary  to  estab- 
lish a  separate  church  was  very  distinctly  given  in 
the  Platform  of  Church  Discipline :  "  A  church  ought 
not  to  be  of  greater  number  than  can  ordinarilie  meet 
convenientlie  in  one  place,  nor  ordinarilie  fewer  than 
may  convenientlie  carry  on  church-work."  Each 
church  was  quite  independent  in  its  work  and  gov- 
ernment, and  had  absolute  power  to  admit,  expel, 
control,  and  censure  its  members. 

These  first  meeting-houses  were  simple  buildings 
enough,  —  square  log-houses  with  clay-filled  chinks, 
surmounted  by  steep  roofs  thatched  with  long  straw 
or  grass,  and  often  with  only  the  beaten  earth  for  a 
floor.  It  was  considered  a  great  advance  and  a  matter 
of  proper  pride  when  the  settlers  had  the  meeting- 
house "  lathed  on  the  inside,  and  so  daubed  and  whit- 
ened over  workmanlike."  The  dimensions  of  many 
of  these  first  essays  at  church  architecture  are  known 
to  us,  and  lowly  little  structures  they  were.  One, 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE.  3 

indeed,  is  preserved  for  us  under  cover  at  Salem. 
The  first  meeting-house  in  Dedham  was  thirty-six 
feet  long,  twenty  feet  wide,  and  twelve  feet  high  "  in 
the  stud  ; "  the  one  in  Medford  was  smaller  still ;  and 
the  Haverhill  edifice  was  only  twenty-six  feet  long 
and  twenty  wide,  yet  "  none  other  than  the  house  of 
God." 

As  the  colonists  grew  in  wealth  and  numbers,  they 
desired  and  built  better  sanctuaries,  "  good  roomthy 
meeting-houses  "  they  were  called  by  Judge  Sewall, 
the  most  valued  and  most  interesting  journal-keeper 
of  the  times.  The  rude  early  buildings  were  then 
converted  into  granaries  or  storehouses,  or,  as  was 
the  Pentucket  meeting-house,  into  a  "  house  of  shel- 
ter or  a  house  to  sett  horses  in."  As  these  meeting- 
houses had  not  been  consecrated,  and  as  they  were 
town-halls,  forts,  or  court-houses  as  well  as  meeting- 
houses, the  humbler  uses  to  which  they  were  finally 
•put  were  not  regarded  as  profanations  of  holy  places. 

The  second  form  or  type  of  American  church  archi- 
tecture was  a  square  wooden  building,  usually  un- 
painted,  crowned  with  a  truncated  pyramidal  roof, 
which  was  surmounted  (if  the  church  could  afford 
such  luxury)  with  a  belfry  or  turret  containing  a  bell. 
The  old  church  at  Hingham,  the  "  Old  Ship  "  which 
was  built  in  1681,  is  still  standing,  a  well-preserved 
example  of  this  second  style  of  architecture.  These 
square  meeting-houses,  so  much  alike,  soon  abounded 
in  New  England ;  for  a  new  church,  in  its  contract 
for  building,  would  often  specify  that  the  structure 


4         THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

should  be  "  like  in  every  detaile  to  the  Lynn  meeting- 
house," or  like  the  Hadley,  Milford,  Boston,  Danvers, 
or  New  Haven  meeting-house.  This  form  of  edifice 
was  the  prototype  of  the  fine  great  First  Church  of 
Boston,  a  large  square  brick  building,  with  three  rows 
of  windows  and  two  galleries,  which  stood  from  the 
year  1713  to  1808,  and  of  which  many  pictures  exist. 

The  third  form  of  the  Puritan  meeting-house,  of 
which  the  Old  South  Church  of  Boston  is  a  typical 
model,  has  too  many  representatives  throughout  New 
England  to  need  any  description,  as  have  also  the 
succeeding  forms  of  New  England  church  architecture. 

The  first  meeting-houses  were  often  built  in  the 
valleys,  in  the  meadow  lands ;  for  the  dwelling-houses 
must  be  clustered  around  them,  since  the  colonists 
were  ordered  by  law  to  build  their  new  homes  within 
half  a  mile  of  the  meeting-house.  Soon,  however,  the 
houses  became  too  closely  crowded  for  the  most  con- 
venient uses  of  a  farming  community ;  pasturage  for 
the  cattle  had  to  be  obtained  at  too  great  a  distance 
from  the  farmhouse ;  firewood  had  to  be  brought  from 
too  distant  woods ;  nearness  to  water  also  had  to  be 
considered.  Thus  the  law  became  a  dead  letter,  and 
each  new-coming  settler  built  on  outlying  and  remote 
land,  since  the  Indians  were  no  longer  so  deeply  to  be 
dreaded.  Then  the  meeting-houses,  having  usually 
to  accommodate  a  whole  township  of  scattered  farms, 
were  placed  on  remote  and  often  highly  elevated  loca- 
tions ;  sometimes  at  the  very  top  of  a  long,  steep  hill, 
—  so  long  and  so  steep  in  some  cases,  especially  in 


THE   NEW   ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE.  5 

one  Connecticut  parish,  that  church  attendants  could 
not  ride  down  on  horseback  from  the  pinnacled  meet- 
ing-house, but  were  forced  to  scramble  down,  leading 
their  horses,  and  mount  from  a  horse-block  at  the  foot 
of  the  hill.  The  second  Roxbury  church  was  set  on 
a  high  hill,  and  the  story  is  fairly  pathetic  of  the  aged 
and  feeble  John  Eliot,  the  glory  of  New  England 
Puritanism,  that  once,  as  he  toiled  patiently  up  the 
long  ascent  to  his  dearly  loved  meeting,  he  said  to  the 
person  on  whose  supporting  arm  he  leaned  (in  the 
Puritan  fashion  of  teaching  a  lesson  from  any  event 
and  surrounding) :  "  This  is  very  like  the  way  to 
heaven;  'tis  uphill.  The  Lord  by  His  grace  fetch 
us  up." 

The  location  on  a  hilltop  was  chosen  and  favored 
for  various  reasons.  The  meeting-house  was  at  first 
a  watch-house,  from  which  to  keep  vigilant  lookout 
for  any  possible  approach  of  hostile  or  sneaking  In- 
dians ;  it  was  also  a  landmark,  whose  high  bell-turret, 
or  steeple,  though  pointing  to  heaven,  was  likewise  a 
guide  on  earth,  for,  thus  stationed  on  a  high  eleva- 
tion, it  could  be  seen  for  miles  around  by  travellers 
journeying  through  the  woods,  or  in  the  narrow,  tree- 
obscured  bridle-paths  which  were  then  almost  the 
only  roads.  In  seaside  towns  it  could  be  a  mark 
for  sailors  at  sea;  such  was  the  Truro  meeting- 
house. Then,  too,  our  Puritan  ancestors  dearly 
loved  a  "  sightly  location,"  and  were  willing  to  climb 
uphill  cheerfully,  even  through  bleak  New  England 
winters,  for  the  sake  of  having  a  meeting-house 


6    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

which  showed  off  well,  and  was  a  proper  source  of 
envy  to  the  neighboring  villages  and  the  country 
around.  The  studiously  remote  and  painfully  inac- 
cessible locations  chosen  for  the  site  of  many  fine, 
roomy  churches  must  astonish  any  observing  trav- 
eller on  the  byroads  of  New  England.  Too  often, 
alas !  these  churches  are  deserted,  falling  down,  un- 
opened from  year  to  year,  destitute  alike  of  minister 
and  congregation.  Sometimes,  too,  on  high  hilltops, 
or  on  lonesome  roads  leading  through  a  tall  second 
growth  of  woods,  deserted  and  neglected  old  grave- 
yards —  the  most  lonely  and  forlorn  of  all  sad  places 
—  by  their  broken  and  fallen  headstones,  which  sur- 
round a  half-filled-in  and  uncovered  cellar,  show  that 
once  a  meeting-house  for  New  England  Christians 
had  stood  there.  Tall  grass,  and  a  tangle  of  black- 
berry brambles  cover  the  forgotten  graves,  and 
perhaps  a  spire  of  orange  tiger-lilies,  a  shrub  of 
southernwood  or  of  winter-killed  and  dying  box, 
may  struggle  feebly  for  life  under  the  shadow  of 
the  "plumed  ranks  of  tall  wild  cherry,"  and  prove 
that  once  these  lonely  graves  were  cared  for  and 
loved  for  the  sake  of  those  who  lie  buried  in  this 
now  waste  spot.  No  traces  remain  of  the  old  meet- 
ing-house save  the  cellar  and  the  narrow  stone  steps, 
sadly  leading  nowhere,  which  once  were  pressed  by 
the  feet  of  the  children  of  the  Pilgrims,  but  now  are 
trodden  only  by  the  curious  and  infrequent  passer-by, 
or  the  epitaph-seeking  antiquary. 

It  is  difficult  often  to  understand   the  details  in 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE.  7 

the  descriptions  of  these  early  meeting-houses,  the 
colonial  spelling  is  so  widely  varied,  and  so  cleverly 
ingenious.  Uniformity  of  spelling  is  a  strictly  mod- 
ern accomplishment,  a  hampering  innovation.  "  A 
square  roofe  without  Dormans,  with  two  Lucoms  on 
each  side,"  means,  I  think,  without  dormer  windows, 
and  with  luthern  windows.  Another  church  paid  a 
bill  for  the  meeting-house  roof  and  the  "  Suppolidge." 
They  had  "  turritts  "  and  "  turetts"  and  "  turits  "  and 
"turyts"  and  "feriats"  and  "tyrryts"  and  " toryttes " 
and  "  turiotts "  and  "  chyrits,"  which  were  one  and 
the  same  thing;  and  one  church  had  orders  for 
"juyces  and  rayles  and  nayles  and  bymes  and 
tymber  and  gaybels  and  a  pulpyt,  and  three  payr  of 
stayrs,"  in  its  meeting-house,  —  a  liberal  supply  of 
the  now  fashionable  #'s.  We  read  of  "pinakles"  and 
"pyks"  and  "shuthers"  and  "scaffills"  and  "bimes" 
and  "  lynters  "  and  "  bathyns  "  and  "  chymbers  "  and 
"  bellfers ; "  and  often  in  one  entry  the  same  word 
will  be  spelt  in  three  or  four  different  ways.  Here 
is  a  portion  of  a  contract  in  the  records  of  the  Rox- 
bury  church :  "  Sayd  John  is  to  fence  in  the  Buring 
Plas  with  a  Fesy  ston  wall,  sefighiattly  don  for 
Strenk  and  workmanship  as  also  to  mark  a  Doball 
gatt  6  or  8  fote  wid  and  to  hing  it."  Sefighiattly  is 
"  sufficiently  ; "  but  who  can  translate  "  Fesy  "  ?  can 
it  mean  "  facy  "  or  faced  smoothly  ? 

The  church-raising  was  always  a  great  event  in  the 
town.  Each  citizen  was  forced  by  law  to  take  part 
in  or  contribute  to  "  raring  the  Meeting  hows."  In 


8    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

early  days  nails  were  scarce,  —  so  scarce  that  un- 
principled persons  set  fire  to  any  buildings  which 
chanced  to  be  temporarily  empty,  for  the  sake  of 
obtaining  the  nails  from  the  ruins;  so  each  male 
inhabitant  supplied  to  the  new  church  a  certain 
"  amount  of  nayles."  Not  only  were  logs,  and  lum- 
ber, and  the  use  of  horses'  and  men's  labor  given,  but 
a  contribution  was  also  levied  for  the  inevitable  bar- 
rel of  rum  and  its  unintoxicating  accompaniments. 
"  Rhum  and  Cacks "  are  frequent  entries  in  the  ac- 
count books  of  early  churches.  No  wonder  that  ac- 
cidents were  frequent,  and  that  men  fell  from  the 
scaffolding  and  were  killed,  as  at  the  raising  of  the 
Dunstable  meeting-house.  When  the  Medford  peo- 
ple built  their  second  meeting-house,  they  provided 
for  the  workmen  and  bystanders,  five  barrels  of  rum, 
one  barrel  of  good  brown  sugar,  a  box  of  fine  lemons, 
and  two  loaves  of  sugar.  As  a  natural  consequence, 
two  thirds  of  the  frame  fell,  and  many  were  injured. 
In  Northampton,  in  1738,  ten  gallons  of  rum  were 
bought  for  £S  "to  raise  the  meeting-house"  —  and 
the  village  doctor  got  "  ,£3  for  setting  his  bone 
Jonathan  Strong,  and  <£3  10s.  for  setting  Ebenezer 
Burt's  thy  "  which  had  somehow  through  the  rum 
or  the  raising,  both  gotten  broken.  Sometimes,  as 
in  Pittsfield  in  1671,  the  sum  of  four  shillings  was 
raised  on  every  acre  of  land  in  the  town,  and  three 
shillings  a  day  were  paid  to  every  man  who  came 
early  to  work,  while  one  shilling  a  day  was  appor- 
tioned to  each  worker  for  his  rum  and  sugar.  At 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE.  9 

last  no  liquor  was  allowed  to  the  workmen  until 
after  the  day's  work  was  over,  and  thus  fatal  acci- 
dents were  prevented. 

The  earliest  meeting-houses  had  oiled  paper  in  the 
windows  to  admit  the  light.  A  Pilgrim  colonist  wrote 
to  an  English  friend  about  to  emigrate,  "  Bring  oiled 
paper  for  your  windows."  Higginson,  however,  wr\t- 
ing  in  1629,  asks  for  "  glasse  for  windowes."  When 
glass  was  used  it  was  not  set  in  the  windows  as  now. 
We  find  frequent  entries  of  "  glasse  and  nayles  for  it," 
and  in  Newbury,  in  1665,  the  church  ordered  that 
the  "  Glasse  in  the  windows  be  ...  look't  to  if  any 
should  happen  to  be  loosed  with  winde  to  be  nailed 
close  again."  The  glass  was  in  lozenge-shaped  panes, 
set  in  lead  in  the  form  of  two  long  narrow  sashes 
opening  in  the  middle  from  top  to  bottom,  and  it  was 
many  years  before  oblong  or  square  panes  came  into 
common  use. 

These  early  churches  were  destitute  of  shade,  for 
the  trees  in  the  immediate  vicinity  were  always  cut 
down  on  account  of  dread  of  the  fierce  fires  which 
swept  often  through  the  forests  and  overwhelmed  and 
destroyed  the  towns.  The  heat  and  blazing  light  in 
summer  were  as  hard  to  bear  in  these  unscreened 
meeting-houses  as  was  the  cold  in  winter. 

"  Old  house  of  Puritanic  wood, 

Through  whose  unpainted  windows  streamed, 
On  seats  as  primitive  and  rude 

As  Jacob's  pillow  when  he  dreamed. 
The  white  and  undiluted  day." 


10    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

We  have  all  heard  the  theory  advanced  that  it  is 
impossible  there  should  be  any  true  religious  feeling, 
any  sense  of  sanctity,  in  a  garish  and  bright  light,  — 
"  the  white  and  undiluted  day,"  -  but  I  think  no  one 
can  doubt  that  to  the  Puritans  these  seething,  glaring, 
pine-smelling  hothouses  were  truly  God's  dwelling- 
place,  though  there  was  no  "  dim,  religious  light " 
within. 

Curtains  and  window-blinds  were  unknown,  and  the 
sunlight  streamed  in  with  unobstructed  and  unbroken 
rays.  Heavy  shutters  for  protection  were  often  used, 
but  to  close  them  at  time  of  service  would  have  been 
to  plunge  the  church  into  utter  darkness.  Permission 
was  sometimes  given,  as  in  Haverhill,  to  "  sett  up 
a  shed  outside  of  the  window  to  keep  out  the  heat 
of  the  sun  there,"  —  a  very  roundabout  way  to  accom- 
plish a  very  simple  end.  As  years  passed  on,  trees 
sprang  up  and  grew  apace,  and  too  often  the  churches 
became  overhung  and  heavily  shadowed  by  dense, 
sombre  spruce,  cedar,  and  fir  trees.  A  New  England 
parson  was  preaching  in  a  neighboring  church  which 
was  thus  gloomily  surrounded.  He  gave  out  as  his 
text,  "  Why  do  the  wicked  live  ? "  and  as  he  peered 
in  the  dim  light  at  his  manuscript,  he  exclaimed  ab- 
ruptly, "  I  hope  they  will  live  long  enough  to  cut  down 
this  great  hemlock-tree  back  of  the  pulpit  window." 
Another  minister,  Dr.  Storrs,  having  struggled  to  read 
his  sermon  in  an  ill-lighted,  gloomy  church,  said  he 
would  never  speak  in  that  building  again  while  it  was 
so  overshadowed  with  trees.  A  few  years  later  he 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE.  11 

was  invited  to  preach  to  the  same  congregation ;  but 
when  he  approached  the  church,  and  saw  the  great 
umbrageous  tree  still  standing,  he  rode  away,  and  left 
the  people  sermonless  in  their  darkness.  The  chill  of 
these  sunless,  unheated  buildings  in  winter  can  well 
be  imagined. 

Strange  and  grotesque  decorations  did  the  outside 
of  the  earliest  meeting-houses  bear,  —  grinning  wolves' 
heads  nailed  under  the  windows  and  by  the  side  of 
the  door,  while  splashes  of  blood,  which  had  dripped 
from  the  severed  neck,  reddened  the  logs  beneath. 
The  wolf,  for  his  destructiveness,  was  much  more 
dreaded  by  the  settlers  than  the  bear,  which  did  not 
so  frequently  attack  the  flocks.  Bears  were  plentiful 
enough.  The  history  of  Roxbury  states  that  in  1725, 
in  one  week  in  September,  twenty  bears  were  killed 
within- two  miles  of  Boston.  This  bear  story  requires 
unlimited  faith  in  Puritan  probity,  and  confidence  in 
Puritan  records  to  credit  it,  but  believe  it,  ye  who  can, 
as  T  do !  In  Salem  and  in  Ipswich,  in  1640,  any  man 
who  brought  a  living  wolf  to  the  meeting-house  was 
paid  fifteen  shillings  by  the  town  ;  if  the  wolf  were 
dead,  ten  shillings.  In  1664,  if  the  wolf-killer  wished 
to  obtain  the  reward,  he  was  ordered  to  bring  the 
wolfs  head  and  "  nayle  it  to  the  meeting-house  and 
give  notis  thereof."  In  Hampton,  the  inhabitants 
were  ordered  to  "  nayle  the  same  to  a  little  red  oake 
tree  at  northeast  end  of  the  meeting-house."  One 
man  in  Newbury,  in  1665,  killed  seven  wolves,  and 
was  paid  the  reward  for  so  doing.  This  was  a  great 


12         THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

number,  for  the  wary  wolf  was  not  easily  destroyed 
either  by  musket  or  wolf-hook.  In  1723  wolves  were 
so  abundant  in  Ipswich  that  parents  would  not  suffer 
their  children  to  go  to  and  from  church  and  school 
without  the  attendance  of  some  grown  person.  As  late 
as  1746  wolves  made  sad  havoc  in  Woodbury,  Connect- 
icut ;  and  a  reward  of  five  dollars  for  each  wolf's  head 
was  offered  by  law  in  that  township  in  1853. 

In  1718  the  last  public  reward  was  paid  in  Salem  for 
a  wolf's  head,  but  so  late  as  the  year  1779  the  howls 
of  wolves  were  heard  every  night  in  Newbury,  though 
trophies  of  shrivelled  wolves'  heads  no  longer  graced 
the  walls  of  the  meeting-house. 

All  kinds  of  notices  and  orders  and  regulations 
and  "  bills  "  were  posted  on  the  meeting-house,  often 
on  the  door,  where  they  would  greet  the  eye  of  all 
who  entered  :  prohibitions  from  selling  guns  and  pow- 
der to  the  Indians,  notices  of  town  meetings,  inten- 
tions of  marriage,  copies  of  the  laws  against  Sabbath- 
breaking,  messages  from  the  Quakers,  warnings  of 
"  vandoos "  and  sales,  lists  of  the  town  officers,  and 
sometimes  scandalous  and  insulting  libels,  and  libels 
in  verse,  which  is  worse,  for  our  forefathers  dearly 
loved  to  rhyme  on  all  occasions.  On  the  meeting- 
house green  stood  those  Puritanical  instruments  of 
punishment,  the  stocks,  whipping-post,  pillory,  and 
cage ;  and  on  lecture  days  the  stocks  and  pillory  were 
often  occupied  by  wicked  or  careless  colonists,  or 
those  everlasting  pillory-replenishers,  the  Quakers. 
It  is  one  of  the  unintentionally  comic  features  of 


3ITT 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE.  13 

absurd  colonial  laws  and  punishments  in  which  the 
early  legal  records  so  delightfully  abound,  that  the  first 
man  who  was  sentenced  to  and  occupied  the  stocks 
in  Boston  was  the  carpenter  who  made  them.  He 
was  thus  fitly  punished  for  his  extortionate  charge  to 
the  town  for  the  lumber  he  used  in  their  manufacture. 
This  was  rather  better  than  "  making  the  punishment 
fit  the  crime,"  since  the  Boston  magistrates  managed 
to  force  the  criminal  to  furnish  his  own  punishment. 
In  Shrewsbury,  also,  the  unhappy  man  who  first  tested 
the  wearisome  capacity  and  endured  the  public  morti- 
cation  of  the  town's  stocks  was  the  man  who  made 
them.  He  "  builded  better  than  he  knew."  Pillories 
were  used  as  a  means  of  punishment  until  a  compara- 
tively recent  date, —  in  Salem  until  the  year  1801,  and 
in  Boston  till  1803. 

Great  horse-blocks,  rows  of  stepping-stones,  or 
hewn  logs  further  graced  the  meeting-house  green; 
and  occasionally  one  fine  horse-block,  such  as  the  Con- 
cord women  proudly  erected,  and  paid  for  by  a  con- 
tribution of  a  pound  of  butter  from  each  house-wife. 

The  meeting-house  not  only  was  employed  for  the 
worship  of  God  and  for  town  meetings,  but  it  was  a 
storehouse  as  well.  Until  after  the  Revolutionary 
War  it  was  universally  used  as  a  powder  magazine ; 
and  indeed,  as  no  fire  in  stove  or  fireplace  was  ever 
allowed  within,  it  was  a  safe  enough  place  for  the 
explosive  material.  In  Hanover,  the  powder  room 
was  in  the  steeple,  while  in  Quincy  the  "  powder- 
closite"  was  in  the  beams  of  the  roof.  Whenever 


14          THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

there  chanced  to  be  a  thunderstorm  during  the  time 
of  public  worship,  the  people  of  Beverly  ran  out  under 
the  trees,  and  in  other  towns  they  left  the  meeting- 
house if  the  storm  seemed  severe  or  near ;  still  they 
built  no  powder  houses.  Grain,  too,  was  stored  in 
the  loft  of  the  meeting-house  for  safety ;  hatches 
were  built, ,  and  often  the  corn  paid  to  the  minister 
was  placed  there.  "  Leantos,"  or  "  linters,"  were 
sometimes  built  by  the  side  of  the  building  for  use 
for  storage.  In  Springfield,  Mr.  Pyncheon  was  al- 
lowed to  place  his  corn  in  the  roof  chamber  of  the 
meeting-house;  but  as  the  people  were  afraid  that 
the  great  weight  might  burst  the  floor,  he  was  for- 
bidden to  store  more  than  four  hundred  bushels  at 
a  time,  unless  he  "  underpropped  the  floor." 

In  one  church  in  the  Connecticut  valley,  in  a  town- 
ship where  it  was  forbidden  that  tobacco  be  smoked 
upon  the  public  streets,  the  church  loft  was  used  to 
dry  and  store  the  freshly  cut  tobacco-leaves  which  the 
inhabitants  sold  to  the  "ungodly  Dutch."  Thus  did 
greed  for  gain  lead  even  blue  Connecticut  Christians 
to  profane  the  house  of  God. 

The  early  meeting-houses  in  country  parishes  were 
seldom  painted,  such  outward  show  being  thought 
vain  and  extravagant.  In  the  middle  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  paint  became  cheaper  and  more  plen- 
tiful, and  a  gay  rivalry  in  church-decoration  sprang 
up.  One  meeting-house  had  to  be  as  fine  as  its 
neighbor.  Votes  were  taken,  "  rates  were  levied," 
gifts  were  asked  in  every  town  to  buy  "  colour"  for  the 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE.  15 

meeting-house.  For  instance,  the  new  meeting-house 
in  Pomfret,  Connecticut,  was  painted  bright  yellow ; 
it  proved  a  veritable  golden  apple  of  discord  through- 
out the  county.  Windham  town  quickly  voted  that 
its  meeting-house  be  "  coloured  something  like  the 
Pomfret  meeting-house."  Killingly  soon  ordered  that 
the  "  cullering  of  the  body  of  our  meeting-house  should 
be  like  the  Pomfret  meeting-house,  and  the  Roff  shal 
be  cullered  Read."  Brooklyn  church  then,  in  1762, 
ordered  that  the  outside  of  its  meeting-house  be  "  cul- 
ered "  in  the  approved  fashion.  The  body  of  the 
house  was  painted  a  bright  orange ;  the  doors  and 
"  bottom  boards  "  a  warm  chocolate  color  ;  the  "  win- 
dow-jets," corner-boards,  and  weather-boards  white. 
What  a  bright  nosegay  of  color !  As  a  crowning 
glory  Brooklyn  people  put  up  an  "  Eleclarick  Rod  " 
on  the  gorgeous  edifice,  and  proudly  boasted  that 
Brooklyn  meeting-house  was  the  "  newest  biggest 
and  yallowest "  in  the  county.  One  old  writer,  how- 
ever, spoke  scornfully  of  the  spirit  of  envious  emula- 
tion, extravagance,  and  bad  taste  that  spread  and 
prevailed  from  the  example  of  the  foolish  and  useless 
"  colouring  "  of  the  Pomfret  meeting-house. 

Within  the  meeting-house  all  was  simple  enough : 
raftered  walls,  sanded  floors,  rows  of  benches,  a  few 
pews,  and  the  pulpit,  or  the  "  scaffold,"  as  John  Cot- 
ton called  it.  The  bare  rafters  were  often  profusely 
hung  with  dusty  spiders'  webs,  and  were  the  home  also 
of  countless  swallows,  that  flew  in  and  out  of  the  open 
bell-turret.  Sometimes,  too,  mischievous  squirrels, 


16         THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

attracted  by  the  corn  in  the  meeting-house  loft,  made 
their  homes  in  the  sanctuary;  and  they  were  so  pro- 
lific and  so  omnivorous  that  the  Bible  and  the  pulpit 
cushions  were  not  safe  from  their  nibbling  attacks. 
On  every  Sunday  afternoon  the  Word  of  God  and  its 
sustaining  cushion  had  to  be  removed  to  the  safe 
shelter  of  a  neighboring  farmhouse  or  tavern,  to  pre- 
vent total  annihilation  by  these  Puritanical,  Bible- 
loving  squirrels. 

The  pulpits  were  often  pretentious,  even  in  the 
plain  and  undecorated  meeting-houses,  and  were  usu- 
ally high  desks,  to  which  a  narrow  flight  of  stairs  led. 
In  the  churches  of  the  third  stage  of  architecture, 
these  stairs  were  often  inclosed  in  a  towering  hex- 
agonal mahogany  structure,  which  was  ornamented 
with  pillars  and  panels.  Into  this  the  minister  walked, 
closed  the  door  behind  him,  and  invisibly  ascended 
the  stairs ;  while  the  children  counted  the  seconds 
from  the  time  he  closed  the  door  until  his  head  ap- 
peared through  the  trap-door  at  the  top  of  the  pulpit. 
The  form  known  as  a  tub-pulpit  was  very  popular  in 
the  larger  churches.  The  pulpit  of  one  old,  unpainted 
church  retained  until  the  middle  of  this  century,  as  its 
sole  decoration,  an  enormous,  carefully  painted,  staring 
eye,  a  terrible  and  suggestive  illustration  to  youthful 
wrong-doers  of  the  great,  all-seeing  eye  of  God. 

As  the  ceiling  and  rafters  were  so  open  and  rever- 
berating, it  was  generally  thought  imperative  to  hang- 
above  the  pulpit  a  great  sounding-board,  which  threat- 
ened the  minister  like  a  giant  extinguisher,  and  was 


THE  NEW  ENGLAND  MEETING-HOUSE.  17 

really  as  devoid  of  utility  as  it  was  curious  in  orna- 
mentation, "  reflecting  most  part  an  empty  ineffec- 
tual sound."  This  great  sound-killer  was  decorated 
with  carved  and  painted  rosettes,  as  in  the  Shrews- 
bury meeting-house ;  with  carved  ivy  leaves,  as  in 
Farmington ;  with  a  carved  bunch  of  grapes  or  pome- 
granates, as  in  the  Leicester  church ;  with  letters  in- 
dicating a  date,  as, "  M.  R.  H."  for  March,  in  the  Hadley 
church ;  with  appropriate  mottoes  and  texts,  such  as 
the  words,  "  Holiness  is  the  Lords,"  in  the  Windham 
church  ;  with  cords  and  tassels,  with  hanging  fringes, 
with  panels  and  balls  ;  and  thus  formed  a  great  orna- 
ment to  the  church,  and  a  source  of  honest  pride  to 
the  church  members.  The  clumsy  sounding-board 
was  usually  hung  by  a  slight  iron  rod,  which  looked 
smaller  still  as  it  stretched  up  to  the  high,  raftered 
roof,  and  always  appeared  to  be  entirely.insufficient 
to  sustain  the  great  weight  of  the  heavy  machine.  In 
Danvers,  one  of  these  useless  though  ornamental  struc- 
tures hung  within  eighteen  inches  of  the  preacher's 
nose,  on  a  slender  bar  thirty  feet  in  length;  and  every 
.Sunday  the  children  gazed  with  fascinated  anticipation 
at  the  slight  rod  and  the  great  hexagonal  extinguisher, 
thinking  and  hoping  that  on  this  day  the  sounding- 
board  would  surely  drop,  and  "  put  out "  the  minister. 
In  fact,  it  was  regarded  by  many  a  child,  though  this 
idea  was  hardly  formulated  in  the  little  brain,  as  a 
visible  means  of  possible  punishment  for  any  false 
doctrine  that  might  issue  from  the  mouth  of  the 
preacher. 


18    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Another  pastime  and  source  of  interest  to  the  chil- 
dren in  many  old  churches  was  the  study  of  the  knots 
and  veins  in  the  unpainted  wood  of  which  the  pews 
and  galleries  were  made.  Age  had  developed  and 
darkened  and  rendered  visible  all  the  natural  irregu- 
larities in  the  wood,  just  as  it  had  brought  out  and 
strengthened  the  dry-woody,  close,  unaired,  penetrat- 
ing scent  which  permeated  the  meeting-house  and 
gave  it  the  distinctive  "  church  smell."  The  children, 
and  perhaps  a  few  of  the  grown  people,  found  in  these 
clusters  of  knots  queer  similitudes  of  faces,  strange 
figures  and  constellations,  which,  though  conned  Sun- 
day after  Sunday  until  known  by  heart,  still  seemed 
ever  to  show  in  their  irregular  groupings  a  puzzling 
possibility  of  the  discovery  of  new  configurations  and 
monstrosities. 

The  dangling,  dusty  spiders'  webs  afforded,  too,  an 
interesting  sight  and  diversion  for  the  sermon-hear- 
ing, but  not  sermon-listening,  young  Puritans,  who 
watched  the  cobwebs  swaying,  trembling,  forming 
strange  maps  of  imaginary  rivers  with  their  many 
tributaries,  or  outlines  of  intersecting  roads  and  lanes. 
And  if  little  Yet-Once,  Hate-Evil,  or  Shearjashub 
chanced,  by  good  fortune,  to  be  seated  near  a  window 
where  a  crafty  spider  and  a  foolish  buzzing  fly  could 
be  watched  through  the  dreary  exposition  and  at- 
tempted reconciliation  of  predestination  and  free  will, 
that  indeed  were  a  happy  way  of  passing  the  weary 
hours. 


II. 
> 

THE   CHURCH  MILITANT. 

FOR  many  years  after  the  settlement  of  New  Eng- 
land the  Puritans,  even  in  outwardly  tranquil  times, 
went  armed  to  meeting ;  and  to  sanctify  the  Sunday 
gun-loading  they  were  expressly  forbidden  to  fire  off 
their  charges  at  any  object  on  that  day  save  an  In- 
dian or  a  wolf,  their  two  "  greatest  inconveniencies." 
Trumbull,  in  his  "  Mac  Fingal,"  writes  thus  in  jest  of 
this  custom  of  Sunday  arm-bearing  :  — 

"  So  once,  for  fear  of  Indian  beating, 
Our  grandsires  bore  their  guns  to  meeting,  — 
Each  man  equipped  on  Sunday  morn 
With  psalm-book,  shot,  and  powder-horn, 
And  looked  in  form,  as  all  must  grant, 
Like  the  ancient  true  church  militant." 

In  1640  it  was  ordered  in  Massachusetts  that  in 
every  township  the  attendants  at  church  should  carry 
a  "  competent  number  of  peeces,  fixed  and  compleat 
with  powder  and  shot  and  swords  every  Lords-day 
to  the  meeting-house ; "  one  armed  man  from  each 
household  was  then  thought  advisable  and  necessary 
for  public  safety.  In  1642  six  men  with  muskets  and 
powder  and  shot  were  thought  sufficient  for  protec 


20    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

tion  for  each  church.  In  Connecticut  similar  mandates 
were  issued,  and  as  the  orders  were  neglected  "by 
divers  persones,"  a  law  was  passed  in  1643  that  each 
offender  should  forfeit  twelve  pence  for  each  offence. 
In  1644  a  fourth  part  of  the  "  trayned  band  "  was 
obliged  to  come  armed  each  Sabbath,  and  the  senti- 
nels were  ordered  to  keep  their  matches  constantly 
lighted  for  use  in  their  match-locks-.  They  were 
also  commanded  to  wear  armor,  .which  consisted  of 
"  coats  basted  with  cotton-wool,  and  thus  made  de- 
fensive against  Indian  arrows."  In  1650  so  muck 
dread  and  fear  were  felt  of  Sunday  attacks  from  the 
red  men  that  the  Sabbath-Day  guard  was  doubled  in 
number.  In  1692,  the  Connecticut  Legislature  or- 
dered  one  fifth  of  the  soldiers  in  each  town  to  come 
armed  to  each  meeting,  and  that  nowhere  should  be 
present  as  a  guard  at  time  of  public  worship  fewer 
than  eight  soldiers  and  a  sergeant.  In  Hadley  the 
guard  was  allowed  annually  from  the  public  treasury 
a  pound  of  lead  and  a  pound  of  powder  to  each 
soldier. 

No  details  that  could  add  to  safety  on  the  Sabbath 
were  forgotten  or  overlooked  by  the  New  Haven 
church ;  bullets  were  made  common  currency  at  the 
value  of  a  farthing,  in  order  that  they  might  be  plen- 
tiful and  in  every  one's  possession;  the  colonists 
were  enjoined  to  determine  in  advance  what  to  do 
with  the  women  and  children  in  case  of  attack,  "  that 
they  do  not  hang  about  them  and  hinder  them ; "  the 
men  were  ordered  to  bring  at  least  six  charges  of 


THE  CHURCH  MILITANT.  21 

powder  and  shot  to  meeting;  the  farmers  were  for- 
bidden to  "  leave  more  arms  at  home  than  men  to  use 
them ; "  the  half-pikes  were  to  be  headed  and  the 
whole  ones  mended,  and  the  swords  "  and  all  pierc- 
ing weapons  furbished  up  and  dressed ; "  wood  was  to 
be  placed  in  the  watch-house  ;  it  was  ordered  that  the 
"  door  of  the  meeting-house  next  the  soldiers'  seat 
be  kept  clear  from  women  and  children  sitting  there, 
that  if  there  be  occasion  for  the  soldiers  to  go  sud- 
denly forth,  they  may  have  free  passage."  The 
soldiers  sat  on  either  side  of  the  main  door,  a  senti- 
nel was  stationed  in  the  meeting-house  turret,  and 
armed  watchers  paced  the  streets  ;  three  cannon  were 
mounted  by  the  side  of  this  "  church  militant,"  which 
must  strongly  have  resembled  a  garrison. 

Military  duty  and  military  discipline  and  regard  for 
the  Sabbath,  and  for  the  House  of  God  as  well,  did 
not  always  make  the  well-equipped  occupants  of  these 
soldiers'  seats  in  New  Haven  behave  with  the  dignity 
and  decorum  befitting  such  guardians  of  the  peace  and 
protectors  in  war.  Serious  disorders  and  disturb- 
ances among  the  guard  were  reported  at  the  General 
Court  on  June  16,  1662.  One  belligerent  son  of 
Mars,  as  he  sat  in  the  meeting-house,  threw  lumps  of 
lime  —  perhaps  from  the  plastered  chinks  in  the  log 
wall  —  at  a  fellow-warrior,  who  in  turn,  very  natu- 
rally, kicked  his  tormentor  with  much  agility  and 
force.  There  must  have  ensued  quite  a  free  fight 
all  around  in  the  meeting-house,  for  "  Mrs.  Good- 
year's  boy  had  his  head  broke  that  day  in  meeting, 


22       THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND.. 

on  account  of  which  a  woman  said  she  doubted  not 
the  wrath  of  God  was  upon  us."  And  well  might 
she  think  so,  for  divers  other  unseemly  incidents 
which  occurred  in  the  meeting-house  at  the  same 
time  were  narrated  in  Court,  examined  into,  and 
punished. 

In  spite  of  these  events  in  the  New  Haven  church 
(which  were  certainly  exceptional),  the  seemingly  in- 
congruous union  of  church  and  army  was  suitable 
enough  in  a  community  that  always  began  and  ended 
the  military  exercises  on  "training  day"  with  solemn 
prayer  and  psalm-singing;  and  that  used  the  army 
and  encouraged  a  true  soldier-like  spirit  not  chiefly  as 
aids  in  war,  but  to  help  to  conquer  and  destroy  the 
adversaries  of  truth,  and  to  "  achieve  greater  mat- 
ters by  this  little  handful  of  men  than  the  world  is 
aware  of." 

The  Salem  sentinels  wore  doubtless  some  of  the 
good  English  armor  owned  by  the  town,  —  corselets 
to  cover  the  body  ;  gorgets  to  guard  the  throat ;  tasses 
to  protect  the  thighs ;  all  varnished  black,  and  cost- 
ing each  suit  "  twenty-four  shillings  a  peece."  The 
sentry  also  wore  a  bandileer,  a  large  "  neat's  leather  " 
belt  thrown  over  the  right  shoulder,  and  hanging 
down  under  the  left  arm.  This  bandileer  sustained 
twelve  boxes  of  cartridges,  and  a  well-filled  bullet-bag. 
Each  man  bore  either  a  "  bastard  musket  with  a  snap- 
hance,"  a  "  long  fowling-piece  with  musket  bore," 
a  "  full  musket,"  a  "  barrell  with  a  match-cock,"  or 
perhaps  (for  they  were  purchased  by  the  town)  a 


THE  CHURCH  MILIT 

leather  gun  (though  these  leather 
been  cannon).  Other  weapons  there  were  to  choose 
from,  mysterious  in  name,  "  sakers,  minions,  ffaulcons, 
rabinets,  murthers  (or  murderers,  as  they  were  some- 
times appropriately  called)  chambers,  harque-busses, 
carbins,"  —  all  these  and  many  other  death-dealing 
machines  did  our  forefathers  bring  and  import  from 
their  war-loving  fatherland  to  assist  them  in  estab- 
lishing God's  Word,  and  exterminating  the  Indians, 
but  not  always,  alas !  to  aid  them  in  converting  those 
poor  heathen. 

The  armed  Salem  watcher,  besides  his  firearms 
and  ammunition,  had  attached  to  his  wrist  by  a  cord 
a  gun-rest,  or  gun-fork,  which  he  placed  upon  the 
ground  when  he  wished  to  fire  his  musket,  and  upon 
which  that  constitutional  kicker  rested  when  touched 
off.  He  also  carried  a  sword  and  sometimes  a  pike, 
and  thus  heavily  burdened  with  multitudinous  arms 
and  cumbersome  armor,  could  never  have  run  after  or 
from  an  Indian  with  much  agility  or  celerity ;  though 
he  could  stand  at  the  church-door  with  his  leather  gun, 
—  an  awe-inspiring  figure, —  and  he  could  shoot  with 
his  "  harquebuss,"  or  "  carbin,"  as  we  well  know. 

These  armed  "  sentinells  "  are  always  regarded  as 
a  most  picturesque  accompaniment  of  Puritan  reli- 
gious worship,  and  the  Salem  and  Plymouth  armed 
men  were  imposing,  though  clumsy.  But  the  New 
Haven  soldiers,  with  their  bulky  garments  wadded 
and  stuffed  out  with  thick  layers  of  cotton  wool,  must 
have  been  more  safety-assuring  and  comforting  than 


24   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

they  were  romantic  or  heroic ;  but  perhaps  they  too 
wore  painted  tin  armor,  "  corselets  and  gorgets  and 
tasses." 

In  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  the  men,  who  all  came 
armed -to  meeting,  stacked  their  muskets  around  a 
post  in  the  middle  of  the  church,  while  the  honored 
pastor,  who  was  a  good  shot  and  owned  the  best  gun 
in  the  settlement,  preached  with  his  treasured  weapon 
in  the  pulpit  by  his  side,  ready  from  his  post  of  van- 
tage to  blaze  away  at  any  red  man  whom  he  saw 
sneaking  without,  or  to  lead,  if  necessary,  his  con- 
gregation to  battle.  The  church  in  York,  Maine, 
until  the  year  1746,  felt  it  necessary  to  retain  the 
custom  of  carrying  arms  to  the  meeting-house,  so 
plentiful  and  so  aggressive  were  Maine  Indians. 

Not  only  in  the  time  of  Indian  wars  were  armed 
men  seen  in  the  meeting-house,  but  on  June  17, 1775, 
the  Provincial  Congress  recommended  that  the  men 
"  within  twenty  miles  of  the  sea-coast  carry  their 
arms  and  ammunition  with  them  to  meeting  on  the 
Sabbath  and  other  days  when  they  meet  for  public 
worship."  And  on  many  a  Sabbath  and  Lecture 
Day,  during  the  years  of  war  that  followed,  were 
proved  the  wisdom  and  foresight  of  that  suggestion. 

The  men  in  those  old  days  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  in  constant  dread  of  attacks  by  Indians, 
always  rose  when  the  services  were  ended  and  left 
the  house  before  the  women  and  children,  thus  mak- 
ing sure  the  safe  exit  of  the  latter.  This  custom  pre- 
vailed from  habit  until  a  late  date  in  many  churches 


THE  CHURCH  MILITANT.  25 

in  New  England,  all  the  men,  after  the  benediction 
and  the  exit  of  the  parson,  walking  out  in  advance  of 
the  women.  So  also  the  custom  of  the  men  always 
sitting  at  the  "  head  "  or  door  of  the  pew  arose  from 
the  early  necessity  of  their  always  being  ready  to  seize 
their  arms  and  rush  unobstructed  to  fight.  In  some 
New  England  village  churches  to  this  day,  the  man 
who  would  move  down  from  his  end  of  the  pew  and 
let  a  woman  sit  at  the  door,  even  if  it  were  a  more 
desirable  seat  from  which  to  see  the  clergyman,  would 
be  thought  a  poor  sort  of  a  creature. 


III. 

BY  DRUM  AND  HORN  AND  SHELL. 

AT  about  nine  o'clock  on  the  Sabbath  morning  the 
Puritan  colonists  assembled  for  the  first  public  ser- 
vice of  the  holy  day ;  they  were  gathered  together  by 
various  warning  sounds.  The  Haverhill  settlers  lis- 
tened for  the  ringing  toot  of  Abraham  Tyler's  horn. 
The  Montague  and  South  Hadley  people  were  notified 
that  the  hour  of  assembling  had  arrived  by  the  loud 
blowing  of  a  conch-shell.  John  Lane,  a  resident  of 
the  latter  town,  was  engaged  in  1750  to  "  blow  the 
Cunk  "  on  the  Sabbath  as  "  a  sign  for  meeting."  In 
Stockbridge  a  strong-lunged  "  praying "  Indian  blew 
the  enormous  shell,  which  was  safely  preserved  until 
modern  times,  and  which,  when  relieved  from  Sunday 
use,  was  for  many  years  sounded  as  a  week-day  signal 
in  the  hay-field.  Even  a  conch-shell  was  enough 
of  an  expense  to  the  poor  colonial  churches.  The 
Montague  people  in  1759  paid  <£!-  10s.  for  their 
"  conk,"  and  also  on  the  purchase  year  gave  Joseph 
Root  20  shillings  for  blowing  the  new  shell.  In  1785 
the  Whately  church  voted  that  u  we  will  not  improve 
anybody  to  blow  the  conch,"  and  so  the  church-attend- 
ants straggled  to  Whately  meeting  each  at  his  own 
time  and  pleasure. 


BY  DRUM  AND  HORN  AND  SHELL.       27 

In  East  Hadley  the  inhabitant  who  "  blew  the 
kunk "  (as  phonetic  East  Hadleyites  spelt  it)  and 
swept  out  the  meeting-house  was  paid  annually  the 
munificent  sum  of  three  dollars  for  his  services. 
Conch-blowing  was  not  so  difficult  and  consequently 
not  so  highly-paid  an  accomplishment  as  drum-beat- 
ing. A  verse  of  a  simple  old-fashioned  hymn  tells 
thus  of  the  gathering  of  the  Puritan  saints :  — 

"  New  England's  Sabbath  day 

Is  heaven-like  still  and  pure, 
When  Israel  walks  the  way 
Up  to  the  temple's  door. 
The  time  we  tell 
When  there  to  come 
By  beat  of  drum 
Or  sounding  shell." 

The  drum,  as  highly  suitable  for  such  a  military 
people,  was  often  used  as  a  signal  for  gathering  for 
public  worship,  and  was  plainly  the  favorite  means  of 
notification.  In  1678  Robert  Stuard,  of  Norwalk, 
"  ingages  yt  his  son  James  shall  beate  the  Drumb,  on 
the  Sabbath  and  other  ocations,"  and  in  Norwalk  the 
"  drumb,"  the  "  drumne,"  the  "  drumme,"  and  at 
last  the  drum  was  beaten  until  1704,  when  the  Church 
got  a  bell.  And  the  "  Drumber  "  was  paid,  and  well 
paid  too  for  his  "  Cervices,"  fourteen  shillings  a  year 
of  the  town's  money,  and  he  was  furnished  a  "  new 
strong  drumme ; "  and  the  town  supplied  to  him  also 
the  flax  for  the  drum-cords  which  he  wore  out  in  the 
service  of  God.  Johnson,  in  his  "  Wonder  Working 


28       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Providence,"  tells  of  the  Cambridge  Church  :  "  Hear- 
ing the  sound  of  a  drum  he  was  directed  toward  it  by 
a  broade  beaten  way  ;  following  this  rode  he  demands 
of  the  next  man  he  met  what  the  signall  of  the  drum 
ment ;  the  reply  was  made  they  had  as  yet  no  Bell  to 
call  men  to  meeting  and  therefore  made  use  of  the 
drum."  In  1638  a  platform  was  made  upon  the  top 
of  the  Windsor  meeting-house  "  from  the  Lanthorne 
to  the  ridge  to  walk  conveniently  to  sound  a  trumpet 
or  a  drum  to  give  warning  to  meeting." 

Sometimes  three  guns  were  fired  as  a  signal  for 
"  church-time."  The  signal  for  religious  gathering, 
and  the  signal  for  battle  were  always  markedly  differ- 
ent, in  order  to  avoid  unnecessary  fright. 

In  1647  Robert  Basset  was  appointed  in  New  Haven 
to  drum  "  twice  upon  Lordes  Dayes  and  Lecture 
Dayes  upon  the  meeting  house  that  soe  those  who  live 
farr  off  may  heare  the  more  distinkly."  Robert  may 
have  been  a  good  drummer,  but  he  proved  to  be  a  most 
reprehensible  and  disreputable  citizen ;  in  the  local 
Court  Records  of  August  1,  1648,  we  find  a  full  re- 
port of  an  astounding  occurrence  in  which  he  played 
an  important  part.  Ten  men,  who  were  nearly  all 
sea-faring  men,  —  gay,  rollicking  sailors,  —  went  to 
Bassett's  house  and  asked  for  strong  drink.  The 
magistrates  had  endeavored  zealously,  and  in  the 
jjiain  successfully,  to  prevent  all  intoxication  in  the 
community,  and  had  forbidden  the  sale  of  liquor  save 
in  very  small  quantities.  The  church-drummer,  how- 
ever, wickedly  unmindful  of  his  honored  calling,  fur- 


BY  DRUM  AND  HORN  AND  SHELL.       29 

*  . 

nished  to  the  sailors  six  quarts  of  strong  liquor,  with 
which  they  all,  host  and  visitors,  got  prodigiously 
drunk  and  correspondingly  noisy.  The  Court  Record 
says :  "  The  miscarriage  continued  till  betwixt  tenn 
and  eleven  of  the  clock,  to  the  great  provocation  of 
God,  disturbance  of  the  peace,  and  to  such  a  height 
of  disorder  that  strangers  wondered  at  it."  In  the 
midst  of  the  carousal  the  master  of  the  pinnace  called 
the  boatswain  "  Brother  Loggerheads."  This  must 
have  been  a  particularly  insulting  epithet,  which  no 
respectable  boatswain  could  have  been  expected  qui- 
etly to  endure,  for  "at  once  the  two  men  fell  fast  to 
wrestling,  then  to  blowes  and  theirin  grew  to  that 
feircnes  that  the  master  of  the  pinnace  thought  the 
boatswain  would  have  puled  out  his  eies;  and  they 
toumbled  on  the  ground  down  the  hill  into  the  creeke 
and  mire  shamefully  wallowing  theirin."  In  his  pain 
and  terror  the  master  called  out,  "  Hoe,  the  Watch ! 
Hoe,  the  Watch  ! "  "  The  Watch  made  hast  and  for 
the  present  stopped  the  disorder,  but  in  his  rage  and 
distemper  the  boatswaine  fell  a-swearinge  Wounds 
and  Hart  as  if  he  were  not  only  angry  with  men 
but  would  provoke  the  high  and  blessed  God."  The 
master  of  the  pinnace,  being  freed  from  his  fellow- 
combatant,  returned  to  Basset's  house  —  perhaps  to 
tell  his  tale  of  woe,  perhaps  to  get  more  liquor  —  and 
was  assailed  by  the  drummer  with  amazing  words  of 
"  anger  and  distemper  used  by  drunken  companions  ;  " 
in  short,  he  was  "  verey  offensive,  his  noyes  and  oathes 
being  hearde  to  the  other  side  of  the  creeke."  For 


30       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

aiding  and  abetting  this  noisy  and  disgraceful  spree, 
and  also  for  partaking  in  it,  Drummer  Basset  was 
fined  <£5,  which  must  have  been  more  than  his  yearly 
salary,  and  in  disgrace,  and  possibly  in  disgust,  quitted 
drumming  the  New  Haven  good  people  to  meeting 
and  moved  his  residence  to  Stamford,  doubtless  to  the 
relief  and  delight  of  both  magistrates  and  people  of 
the  former  town. 

~l^  Another  means  of  notification  of  the  hour  for 
religious  service  was  by  the  use  of  a  flag,  often  in 
addition  to  the  sound  of  the  drum  or  bell.  Thus  in 
Plymouth,  in  1697,  the  selectmen  were  ordered  to 
"  procure  a  flagg  to  be  put  out  at  the  ringing  of  the 
first  bell,  and  taken  in  when  the  last  bell  was  rung." 
In  Sutherland  also  a  flag  was  used  as  a  means  of 
announcement  of  "  meeting-time,"  and  an  old  goody 
was  paid  ten  shillings  a  year  for  "  tending  the  flagg." 
Mr.  Gosse,  in  his  "  Early  Bells  of  Massachusetts," 
gives  a  full  and  interesting  account  of  the  church- 
bells  of  the  first  colonial  towns  in  that  State.  Lech- 
ford,  in  his  "  Plaine  Dealing,"  wrote  in  1641  that  they 
came  together  in  Bost6n  on  the  Lord's  Day  by  "  the 
wringing  of  a  bell,"  and  it  is  thought  that  that  bell 
was  a  hand-bell.  The  first  bells,  for  the  lack  of  bell- 
towers,  were  sometimes  hung  on  trees  by  the  side  of 
the  meeting-houses,  to  the  great  amazement  and  dis- 
tress of  the  Indians,  who  regarded  them  with  super- 
stitious dread,  thinking  —  to  paraphrase  Herbert's 
beautiful  line  —  "  when  the  bell  did  chime  't  was 
devils'  music ; "  but  more  frequently  the  bells  were 


BY  DRUM  AND  HORN  AND  SHELL.      31 

hung  in  a  belfry  or  bell-turret  or  "  bellcony,"  and 
from  this  belfry  depended  a  long  bell-rope  quite  to  the 
floor ;  and  thus  in  the  very  centre  of  the  church  the 
sexton  stood  when  he  rung  the  summons  for  fire  or 
for  meeting.  This  rope  was  of  course  directly  in 
front  of  the  pulpit ;  and  Jonathan  Edwards,  who  was 
devoid  of  gestures  and  looked  always  straight  be- 
fore him  when  preaching,  was  jokingly  said  to  have 
"  looked-off  "  the  bell-rope,  when  it  fell  with  a  crash 
in  the  middle  of  his  church. 

At  the  first  sound  of  the  drum  or  horn  or  bell  the 
town  inhabitants  issued  from  their  houses  in  "  desent 
order,"  man  and  wife  walking  first,  and  the  children 
in  quiet  procession  after  them.  Often  a  man-servant 
and  a  maid  walked  on  either  side  of  the  heads  of  the 
family.  In  some  communities  the  congregation  waited 
outside  the  church  door  until  the  minister  and  his  wife 
arrived  and  passed  into  the  house  ;  then  the  church- 
attendants  followed,  the  loitering  boys  always  contriv- 
ing to  scuffle  noisily  in  from  the  horse-sheds  at  the 
last  moment,  making  much  scraping  and  clatter  with 
their  heavy  boots  on  the  sanded  floor,  and  tumbling 
clumsily  up  the  uncarpeted,  creaking  stairs. 

In  other  churches  the  members  of  the  congregation 
seated  themselves  in  their  pews  upon  their  arrival, 
but  rose  reverently  when  the  parson,  dressed  in  black 
skull-cap  and  Geneva  cloak,  entered  the  door ;  and 
they  stood,  in  token  of  respect,  until  after  he  entered 
the  pulpit  and  was  seated. 

It  was  also  the  honor-giving  and  deferential  custom 


32       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

in  many  New  England  churches,  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  for  the  entire  congregation  to  remain  respect- 
fully standing  within  the  pews  at  the  end  of  the  ser- 
vice until  the  minister  had  descended  from  his  lofty 
pulpit,  opened  the  door  of  his  wife's  pew,  and  led  her 
with  stately  dignity  to  the  church-porch,  where,  were 
he  and  she  genial  and  neighborly  minded  souls,  they 
in  turn  stood  and  greeted  with  carefully  adjusted 
degrees  of  warmth,  interest,  respect,  or  patronage, 
the  different  members  of  the  congregation  as  they 
slowly  passed  out. 


IV. 

THE  OLD-FASHIONED  PEWS. 

IN  the  early  New  England  meeting-houses  the  seats 
were  long,  narrow,  uncomfortable  benches,  which 
were  made  of  simple,  rough,  hand-riven  planks  placed 
on  legs  like  milking-stools.  They  were  without  any 
support  or  rest  for  the  back ;  and  perhaps  the  stiff- 
backed  Pilgrims  and  Puritans  required  or  wished  no 
support.  Quickly,  as  the  colonies  grew  in  wealth  and 
the  colonists  in  ambition  and  importance,  "  Spots  for 
Pues  "  were  sold  (or  "  pitts  "  as  they  were  sometimes 
called),  at  first  to  some  few  rich  or  influential  men 
who  wished  to  sit  in  a  group  together,  and  finally 
each  family  of  dignity  or  wealth  sat  in  its  own 
family-pew.  Often  it  was  stipulated  in  the  permis- 
sion to* build  a  pew  that  a  separate  entrance-door 
should  be  cut  into  it  through  the  outside  wall  of 
the  meeting-house,  thus  detracting  grievously  from 
the  external  symmetry  of  the  edifice,  but  obviating  the 
necessity  of  a  space-occupying  entrance  aisle  within 
the  church,  where  there  was  little  enough  sitting- 
room  for  the  quickly  increasing  and  universally 
church-going  population.  As  these  pews  were  either 
oblong  or  square,  were  both  large  and  small,  painted 

3 


34        THE  SABBATH  IN  PUKITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

and  unpainted,  and  as  each  pewholder  could  exercise 
his  own  "  tast  or  discresing  "  in  the  kind  of  wood  he 
used  in  the  formation  of  his  pew,  as  well  as  in  the 
style  of  finish,  much  diversity  and  incongruity  of 
course  resulted.  A  man  who  had  a  wainscoted  pew 
was  naturally  and  properly  much  respected  and  en- 
vied by  the  entire  community.  These  pews,  erected 
by  individual  members,  were  individual  and  not 
communal  property.  A  widow  in  Cape  Cod  had 
her  house  destroyed  by  fire.  She  was  given  from 
the  old  meeting-house,  which  was  being  razed,  the 
old  building  materials  to  use  in  the  construction 
of  her  new  home.  She  was  not  allowed,  however, 
to  remove  the  wood  which  formed  the  pews,  as 
they  were  adjudged  to  be  the  property  of  the 
members  who  had  built  them,  and  those  owners 
only  could  sell  or  remove  the  materials  of  which 
they  were  built. 

Many  of  the  pews  in  the  old  meeting-houses  had 
towering  partition  walls,  which  extended  up  so  high 
that  only  the  tops  of  the  tallest  heads  could  be  seen 
when  the  occupants  were  seated.  Permissions  to 
build  were  often  given  with  modifying  restrictions  to 
the  aspiring  pew-builders,  as  for  instance  is  recorded 
of  the  Haverhill  church,  "  provided  they  would  not 
build  so  high  as  to  damnify  and  hinder  the  light  of 
them  windows,"  or  of  the  Waterbury  church,  "  if  the 
pues  will  not  progodish  the  hous."  Often  the  floor  of 
the  pews  was  several  inches  and  occasionally  a  foot 
higher  than  the  floor  of  the  "  alleys,"  thus  forming  at 


THE  OLD-FASHIONED  PEWS.  35 

the  entrance-door  of  the  pew  one  or  two  steps,  which 
were  great  stumbling-blocks  to  clumsy  and  to  childish 
feet,  that  tripped  again  when  within  the  pew  over  the 
"  crickets  "  and  foot-benches  which  were,  if  the  family 
•were  large,  the  accepted  and  lowly  church-seats  of  the 
little  children.  Occasionally  one  long,  low  foot-rest 
stretched  quite  across  one  side  of  the  pew-floor.  I 
have  seen  these  long  benches  with  a  tier  of  three 
shelves  ;  the  lower  and  broader  shelf  was  used  as  ^ 
foot-rest,  the  second  one  was  to  hold  the  hats  of  the 
men,  and  the  third  and  narrower  shelf  was  for  the 
hymn-books  and  Bibles.  Such  comfortable  and  luxu- 
rious pew-furnishings  could  never  have  been  found  in 
many  churches. 

An  old  New  Englander  relates  a  funny  story  of  his 
youth,  in  which  one  of  these  triple-tiered  foot-benches 
played  an  important  part.  When  he  was  a  boy  a 
travelling  show  visited  his  native  town,  and  though  he 
was  not  permitted  to  go  within  the  mystic  and  alluring 
tent,  he  stood  longingly  at  the  gate,  and  was  prodi- 
giously diverted  and  astonished  by  an  exhibition  of 
tight-rope  walking,  which  was  given  outside  the  tent- 
door  as  a  bait  to  lure  pleasure-loving  and  frivolous 
townspeople  within,  and  also  as  a  tantalization  to  the 
children  of  the  saints  who  were  not  allowed  to  enter 
the  tent  of  the  wicked.  Fired  by  that  bewildering 
and  amazing  performance,  he  daily,  after  the  wonder- 
ful sight,  practised  walking  on  rails,  on  fences,  on 
fallen  trees,  and  on  every  narrow  foothold  which 
he  could  find,  as  a  careful  preparation  for  a  final  feat 


86   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

and  triumph  of  skill  on  his  mother's  clothes-line.  In 
an  evil  hour,  as  he  sat  one  Sunday  in  the  corner  of  his 
father's  pew,  his  eyes  rested  on  the  narrow  ledge 
which  formed  the  top  of  the  long  foot-bench.  Satan 
can  find  mischief  for  idle  boys  within  church  as  well 
as  without,  and  the  desire  grew  stronger  to  try  to 
walk  on  that  narrow  foothold.  He  looked  at  his 
father  and  mother,  they  were  peacefully  sleeping ;  so 
also  were  the  grown-up  occupants  of  the  neighboring 
pews ;  the  pew  walls  were  high,  the  minister  seldom 
glanced  to  right  or  left ;  a  thousand  good  reasons  were 
whispered  in  his  ear  by  the  mischief-finder,  and  at 
last  he  willingly  yielded,  pulled  off  his  heavy  shoes, 
and  softly  mounted  the  foot-bench.  He  walked  for- 
ward and  back  with  great  success  twice,  thrice,  but 
when  turning  for  a  fourth  tour  he  suddenly  lost  his 
balance,  and  over  he  went  with  a  resounding  crash  — 
hats,  psalm-books,  heavy  bench,  and  all.  He  crushed 
into  hopeless  shapelessness  his  father's  gray  beaver 
meeting-hat,  a  long-treasured  and  much-loved  antique; 
he  nearly  smashed  his  mother's  kid-slippered  foot  to 
jelly,  and  the  fall  elicited  from  her,  in  the  surprise  of 
the  sudden  awakening  and  intense  pain,  an  ear-pierc- 
ing shriek,  which,  with  the  noisy  crash,  electrified  the 
entire  meeting.  All  the  grown  people  stood  up  to  in- 
vestigate, the  children  climbed  on  the  seats  to  look  at 
the  guilty  offender  and  his  deeply  mortified  parents ; 
while  the  minister  paused  in  his  sermon  and  said  with 
cutting  severity,  "I  have  always  regretted  that  the 
office  of  tithingman  has  been  abolished  in  this  com- 


THE   OLD-FASHIONED  PEWS.  37 

munity,  as  his  presence  and  his  watchful  care  are  sadly 
needed  by  both  the  grown  persons  and  the  children 
in  this  congregation."  The  wretched  boy  who  had 
caused  all  the  commotion  and  disgrace  was  of  course 
uninjured  by  his  fall,  but  a  final  settlement  at  home 
between  father  and  son  on  account  of  this  sacrilegious 
piece  of  church  disturbance  made  the  unhappy  would- 
be  tight-rope  walker  wish  that  he  had  at  least  broken 
his  arm  instead  of  his  father's  hat  and  his  mother's 
pride  and  the  peace  of  the  congregation. 

The  seats  were  sometimes  on  four  sides  of  these 
pews,  but  oftener  on  three  sides  only,  thus  at  least 
two  thirds  of  the  pew  occupants  did  not  face  the  min- 
ister. The  pew-seats  were  as  narrow  and  uncomfort- 
able as  the  plebeian  benches,  though  more  exclusive, 
and,  with  the  high  partition  walls,  quite  justified 
the  comment  of  a  little  girl  when  she  first  attended 
a  service  in  one  of  these  old-fashioned,  square- 
pewed  churches.  She  exclaimed  in  dismay,  "What! 
must  I  be  shut  up  in  a  closet  and  sit  on  a  shelf?" 
Often  elderly  people  petitioned  to  build  separate  small 
pens  of  pews  with  a  single  wider  seat  as  "  through  the 
seats  being  so  very  narrow"  they  could  not  sit  in 
comfort. 

The  seats  were,  until  well  into  this  century,  almost 
universally  hung  on  hinges,  and  could  be  turned  up 
against  the  walls  of  the  pew,  thus  enabling  the  stand- 
ing congregation  to  lean  for  support  against  the  sides 
of  the  pews  during  the  psalm-singing  and  the  long, 
long  prayers. 


38        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

"  And  when  at  last  the  loud  Amen 
Fell  from  aloft,  how  quickly  then 
The  seats  came  down  with  heavy  rattle, 
Like  musketry  in  fiercest  battle." 

This  noise  of  slamming  pew-seats  could  easily  be 
heard  over  half  a  mile  away  from  the  meeting-house 
in  the  summer  time,  for  the  perverse  boys  contrived 
always  in  their  salute  of  welcome  to  the  Amen  to  give 
vent  in  a  most  tremendous  bang  to  a  little  of  their 
pent  up  and  ill-repressed  energies.  In  old  church- 
orders  such  entries  as  this  (of  the  Haverhill  church) 
are  frequently  seen:  "The  people  are  to  Let  their 
Seats  down  without  Such  Nois."  "  The  boyes  are  not 
to  wickedly  noise  down  there  pew-seats."  A  gentle- 
man attending  the  old  church  in  Leicester  heard  at 
the  beginning  of  the  prayer,  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life,  the  noise  of  slamming  pew-seats,  as  the  seats 
were  thrust  up  against  the  pew -walls.  He  jumped 
into  the  aisle  at  the  first  clatter,  thinking  instinctively 
that  the  gallery  was  cracking  and  falling.  Another 
stranger,  a  Southerner,  entering  rather  late  at  a  morn- 
ing service  in  an  old  church  in  New  England,  was 
greeted  with  the  rattle  of  falling  seats,  and  exclaimed 
in  amazement,  "  Do  you  Northern  people  applaud  in 
church?" 

In  many  meeting-houses  the  tops  of  the  pews  and 
of  the  high  gallery  railings  were  ornamented  with 
little  balustrades  of  turned  wood,  which  were  often 
worn  quite  bare  of  paint  by  childish  fingers  that  had 
tried  them  all  "  to  find  which  ones  would  turn/'  and 


THE  OLD-FASHIONED  PEWS.  39 

which,  alas!  would  also  squeak.  This  fascinating 
occupation  whiled  away  many  a  tedious  hour  in  the 
dreary  church,  and  in  spite  of  weekly  forbidding 
frowns  and  whispered  reproofs  for  the  shrill,  ear-pierc- 
ing squeaks  elicited  by  turning  the  spindle-shaped 
balusters,  was  entirely  too  alluring  a  time-killer  to 
be  abandoned,  and  consequently  descended,  an  heredi- 
tary church  pastime,  from  generation  to  generation  of 
the  children  of  the  Puritans ;  and  indeed  it  remained 
so  strong  an  instinct  that  many  a  grown  person,  visit- 
ing in  after  life  a  church  whose  pews  bore  balustrades 
like  the  ones  of  his  childhood,  could  scarce  keep  his 
itching  fingers  from  trying  them  each  in  succession 
"  to  see  which  ones  would  turn." 

These  open  balustrades  also  afforded  fine  peep-holes 
through  which,  by  standing  or  kneeling  upon  "the 
shelf,"  a  child  might  gaze  at  his  neighbor;  and  also 
through  which  sly  missiles  —  little  balls  of  twisted 
paper  —  could  be  snapped,  to  the  annoyance  of  some 
meek  girl  or  retaliating  boy,  until  the  young  marks- 
man was  ignominiously  pulled  down  by  his  mother 
from  his  post  of  attack.  And  through  these  balus- 
trades the  same  boy  a  few  years  later  could  thrust  sly 
missives,  also  of  twisted  paper,  to  the  girl  whom  he 
had  once  assailed  and  bombarded  with  his  annoying 
paper  bullets. 

Through  the  pillared  top-rail  a  restless  child  in 
olden  days  often  received,  on  a  hot  summer  Sabbath 
from  a  farmer's  wife  or  daughter  in  an  adjoining 
pew,  friendly  and  quieting  gifts  of  sprigs  of  dill,  or 


40        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

fennel,  or  caraway,  famous  anti-soporifics;  and  on 
this  herbivorous  food  he  would  contentedly  browse 
as  long  as  it  lasted.  An  uneasy,  sermon-tired  little 
girl  was  once  given  through  the  pew-rail  several 
stalks  of  caraway,  and  with  them  a  large  bunch  of 
aromatic  southernwood,  or  "lad's-love"  which  had 
been  brought  to  meeting  by  the  matron  in  the  next 
pew,  with  a  crudely  and  unconsciously  aesthetic  sense 
that  where  eye  and  ear  found  so  little  to  delight  them, 
there  the  pungent  and  spicy  fragrance  of  the  south- 
ernwood would  be  doubly  grateful  to  the  nostrils. 
Little  Missy  sat  down  delightedly  to  nibble  the  cara- 
way-seed, and  her  mother  seeing  her  so  quietly  and 
absorbingly  occupied,  at  once  fell  contentedly  and 
placidly  asleep  in  her  corner  of  the  pew.  But  five 
heads  of  caraway,  though  each  contain  many  score 
of  seeds,  and  the  whole  number  be  slowly  nibbled 
and  eaten  one  seed  at  a  time,  will  not  last  through 
the  child's  eternity  of  a  long  doctrinal  sermon ;  and 
when  the  umbels  were  all  devoured,  the  young  ex- 
perimentalist began  upon  the  stalks  and  stems,  and 
they,  too,  slowly  disappeared.  She  then  attacked  the 
sprays  of  southernwood,  and  in  spite  of  its  bitter, 
wormwoody  flavor,  having  nothing  else  to  do,  she 
finished  it,  all  but  the  tough  stems,  just  as  the  long 
sermon  was  brought  to  a  close.  Her  waking  mother, 
discovering  no  signs  of  green  verdure  in  the  pew, 
quickly  drew  forth  a  whispered  confession  of  the 
time-killing  Nebuchadnezzar-like  feast,  and  fright- 
ened and  horrified,  at  once  bore  the  leaf-gorged  child 


THE  OLD-FASHIONED  PEWS.  41 

from  the  church,  signalling  in  her  retreat  to  the  vil- 
lage doctor,  who  quickly  followed  and  administered 
to  the  omnivorous  young  New  Englander  a  bolus 
which  made  her  loathe  to  her  dying  day,  through  a 
sympathetic  association  and  memory,  the  taste  of 
caraway,  and  the  scent  of  southernwood. 

An  old  gentleman,  lamenting  the  razing  of  the 
church  of  his  childhood,  told  the  story  of  his  youthful 
Sabbaths  in  rhyme,  and  thus  refers  with  affection- 
ate enthusiasm  to  the  old  custom  of  bringing  bunches 
of  esculent  "  sallet  "  herbs  to  meeting :  — 

"And  when  I  tired  and  restless  grew, 
Our  next  pew  neighbor,  Mrs.  True, 
Reached  her  kind  hand  the  top  rail  through 
To  hand  me  dill,  and  fennel  too, 
And  sprigs  of  caraway. 

"  And  as  I  munched  the  spicy  seeds, 
I  dimly  felt  that  kindly  deeds 
That  thus  supply  our  present  needs, 
Though  only  gifts  of  pungent  weeds, 
Show  true  religion. 

"  And  often  now  through  sermon  trite 
And  operatic  singer's  flight, 
I  long  for  that  old  friendly  sight, 
The  hand  with  herbs  of  value  light, 
To  help  to  pass  the  time." 

Were  the  dill  and  "  sweetest  fennel "  chosen  Sab- 
bath favorites  for  their  old-time  virtues  and  powers  ? 

"  Vervain  and  dill 
Hinder  witches  of  their  ill." 


42   THE  SABABTH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

And  of  the  charmed  fennel  Longfellow  wrote  :  — 

"  The  fennel  with  its  yellow  flowers 
That,  in  an  earlier  age  than  ours, 
Was  gifted  with  the  wondrous  powers, 
Lost  vision  to  restore." 

traditions  of  mysterious  powers,  dream-influenc- 
ing, spirit-exorcising,  virtue-awakening,  health-giving 
properties,  hung  vaguely  around  the  southernwood 
and  made  it  specially  fit  to  be  a  Sabbath-day  posy. 
These  traditions  are  softened  by  the  influence  of 
years  into  simply  idealizing,  in  the  mind  of  every 
country-bred  New  Englander,  the  peculiar  refreshing 
scent  of  the  southernwood  as  a  typical  Sabbath-day 
fragrance.  Half  a  century  ago,  the  pretty  feathery 
pale-green  shrub  grew  in  every  country  door-yard, 
humble  or  great,  throughout  New  England ;  and  every 
church-going  woman  picked  a  branch  or  spray  of  it 
when  she  left  her  home  on  Sabbath  morn.  To  this 
day,  on  hot  summer  Sundays,  many  a  staid  old 
daughter  of  the  Puritans  may  be  seen  entering  the 
village  meeting-house,  clad  in  a  lilac-sprigged  lawn 
or  a  green-striped  barege,  —  a  scanty-skirted,  surplice- 
waisted  relic  of  past  summers,  —  with  a  lace-bordered 
silk  cape  or  a  delicate,  time-yellowed,  purple  and 
white  cashmere  scarf  on  her  bent  shoulders,  wearing 
on  her  gray  head  a  shirred-silk  or  leghorn  bonnet, 
and  carrying  in  her  lace-mitted  hand  a  fresh  handker- 
chief, her  spectacle-case  and  well-worn  Bible,  and 
a  great  sprig  of  the  sweet,  old-fashioned  "  lad's-love." 


THE  OLD-FASHIONED  PEWS.  43 

A  rose,  a  bunch  of  mignonette  would  be  to  her  too 
gay  a  posy  for  the  Lord's  House  and  the  Lord's  Day. 
And  balmier  breath  than  was  ever  borne  by  blossom 
is  the  pure  fragrance  of  green  growing  things,  — 
southernwood,  mint,  sweet  fern,  bayberry,  sweetbrier. 
No  rose  is  half  so  fresh,  so  countrified,  so  memory- 
sweet. 

The  benches  and  the  pew-seats  in  the  old  churches 
were  never  cushioned.  Occasionally  very  old  or 
feeble  women  brought  cushions  to  meeting  to  sit 
upon.  It  is  a  matter  of  recent  tradition  that  Colonel 
Greenleaf  caused  a  nine  days'  talk  in  Newbury  town 
at  the  beginning  of  this  century  when  he  cushioned 
his  pew.  The  widow  of  Sir  William  Pepperell,  who 
lived  in  imposing  style,  had  her  pew  cushioned  and 
lined  and  curtained  with  worsted  stuff,  and  carpeted 
with  a  heavy  bear-skin.  This  worn,  faded,  and  moth- 
eaten  furniture  remained  in  the  Kittery  church  until 
the  year  1840,  just  as  when  Lady  Pepperell  furnished 
and  occupied  the  pew.  Nor  were  even  the  seats  of 
the  pulpit  cushioned.  The  "  cooshoons  "  of  velvet  or 
leather,  which  were  given  by  will  to  the  church,  and 
which  were  kept  in  the  pulpit,  and  were  nibbled  by 
the  squirrels,  were  for  the  Bible,  not  the  minister,  to 
rest  upon. 

In  many  churches — in  Durham,  Concord  and  Sand- 
wich— the  pews  had  swing-shelves,  "leaning  shelves," 
upon  which  a  church  attendant  could  rest  his  paper 
and  his  arm  when  taking  notes  from  the  sermon,  as 
was  at  one  time  the  universal  custom,  and  in  which 


44   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

even  school-boys  of  a  century  ago  had  to  take  part. 
Funny  stories  are  told  of  the  ostentatious  notes  taken 
by  pompous  parishioners  who  could  neither  write  nor 
read,  but  who  could  scribble,  and  thus  cut  a  learned 
figure. 

The  doors  of  the  pews  were  usually  cut  down  some- 
what lower  than  the  pew-walls,  and  frequently  had 
no  top-rails.  They  sometimes  bore  the  name  of  the 
pew-owner  painted  in  large  white  letters.  They  were 
secured  when  closed  by  clumsy  wooden  buttons.  In 
many  country  congregations  the  elderly  men  —  stiff 
old  farmers  —  had  a  fashion  of  standing  up  in  the 
middle  of  the  sermon  to  stretch  their  cramped  limbs, 
and  they  would  lean  against  and  hang  over  the  pew 
door  and  stare  up  and  down  the  aisle.  In  Andover, 
Vermont,  old  Deacon  Puffer  never  let  a  summer 
Sunday  pass  without  thus  resting  and  diverting  him 
self.  One  day,  having  ill-secured  the  wooden  button 
at  the  door  of  his  pew,  the  leaning-place  gave  way 
under  his  weight,  and  out  he  sprawled  on  all-fours, 
with  a  loud  clatter,  into  the  middle  of  the  aisle,  to  the 
amusement  of  the  children,  and  the  mortification  of 
his  wife. 

Thus  it  may  be  seen,  as  an  old  autobiography 
phrases  it,  "  diversions  was  frequent  in  meeting,  and 
the  more  duller  the  sermon,  the  more  likely  it  was 
that  some  accident  or  mischief  would  be  done  to  help 
to  pass  the  time." 


V. 

SEATING  THE  MEETING. 

PERHAPS  no  duty  was  more  important  and  more 
difficult  of  satisfactory  performance  in  the  church 
work  in  early  New  England  than  "  seating  the  meet- 
ing-house." Our  Puritan  forefathers,  though  bitterly 
denouncing  all  forms  and  ceremonies,  were  great 
respecters  of  persons ;  and  in  nothing  was  the  regard 
for  wealth  and  position  more  fully  shown  than  in 
designating  the  seat  in  which  each  person  should  sit 
during  public  worship.  A  committee  of  dignified  and 
influential  men  was  appointed  to  assign  irrevocably 
to  each  person  his  or  her  place,  according  to  rank 
and  importance.  Whittier  wrote  of  this  custom  :  — 

"  In  the  goodly  house  of  worship,  where  in  order  due  and  fit, 
As  by  public  vote  directed,  classed  and  ranked  the  people  sit ; 
Mistress  first  and  goodwife    after,  clerkly  squire  before  the 

clown, 
From  the  brave  coat,  lace  embroidered,   to  the  gray  frock 

shading  down." 

In  many  cases  the  members  of  the  committee  were 
changed  each  year  or  at  each  fresh  seating,  in  order 
to  obviate  any  of  the  effects  of  partiality  through 
kinship,  friendship,  personal  esteem,  or  debt.  A  sec- 


46   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

ond  committee  was  also  appointed  to  seat  the  mem- 
bers of  committee  number  one,  in  order  that,  as 
Haverhill  people  phrased  it,  "  there  may  be  no  Grum- 
bling at  them  for  picking  and  placing  themselves." 

This  seating  committee  sent  to  the  church  the  list 
of  all  the  attendants  and  the  seats  assigned  to  them, 
and  when  the  list  had  been  twice  or  thrice  read  to  the 
congregation,  and  nailed  on  the  meeting-house  door, 
it  became  a  law.  Then  some  such  order  as  this  of  the 
church  at  Watertown,  Connecticut,  was  passed :  "  It 
is  ordered  that  the  next  Sabbath  Day  every  person 
shall  take  his  or  her  seat  appointed  to  them,  and  not 
go  to  any  other  seat  where  others  are  placed :  And 
if  any  one  of  the  inhabitants  shall  act  contrary,  he 
shall  for  the  first  offence  be  reproved  by  the  deacons, 
and  for  a  second  pay  a  fine  of  two  shillings,  and  a 
like  fine  for  each  offence  ever  after."  Or  this  of 
the  Stratham  church  :  "  When  the  comety  have  Seatid 
the  meeting-house  every  person  that  is  Seatid  shall 
set  in  those  Seats  or  pay  Five  Shillings  Pir  Day  for 
every  day  they  set  out  of  There  seats  in  a  Disorderly 
Manner  to  advance  themselves  Higher  in  the  meeting- 
house." These  two  church-laws  were  very  lenient.  In 
many  towns  the  punishments  and  fines  were  much 
more  severe.  Two  men  of  Newbury  were  in  1669  fined 
,£27  4s.  each  for  "disorderly  going  and  setting  in  seats 
belonging  to  others."  They  were  dissatisfied  with 
the  seats  assigned  to  them  by  the  seating  committee, 
and  openly  and  defiantly  rebelled.  Other  and  more 
peaceable  citizens  "  entred  their  Decents "  to  the 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  47 

first  decision  of  the  committee  and  asked  for  re- 
consideration of  their  special  cases  and  for  promo- 
tion to  a  higher  pew  before  the  final  orders  were 
"  Jsued." 

In  all  the  Puritan  meetings,  as  then  and  now  in 
Quaker  meetings,  the  men  sat  on  one  side  of  the 
meeting-house  and  the  women  on  the  other ;  and  they 
entered  by  separate  doors.  It  was  a  great  and  much- 
contested  change  when  men  and  women  were  ordered 
to  sit  together  "  promiscuoslie."  In  front,  on  either 
side  of  the  pulpit  (or  very  rarely  in  the  foremost  row 
in  the  gallery),  was  a  seat  of  highest  dignity,  known 
as  the  "  foreseat,"  in  which  only  the  persons  of  great- 
est importance  in  the  community  sat. 

Sometimes  a  row  of  square  pews  was  built  on 
three  sides  of  the  ground  floor,  and  each  pew  occu- 
pied by  separate  families,  while  the  pulpit  was  on  the 
fourth  side.  If  any  man  wished  such  a  private  pew 
for  himself  and  family,  he  obtained  permission  from 
the  church  and  town,  and  built  it  at  his  own  expense. 
Immediately  in  front  of  the  pulpit  was  either  a  long 
seat  or  a  square  inclosed  pew  for  the  deacons,  who 
sat  facing  the  congregation.  This  was  usually  a  foot 
or  two  above  the  level  of  the  other  pews,  and  was 
reached  by  two  or  three  steep,  narrow  steps.  On  a 
still  higher  plane  was  a  pew  for  the  ruling  elders, 
when  ruling  elders  there  were.  The  magistrates 
also  had  a  pew  for  their  special  use.  What  we  now 
deem  the  best  seats,  those  in  the  middle  of  the  church, 
were  in  olden  times  the  free  seats. 


48        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Usually,  on  one  side  of  the  pulpit  was  a  square  pew 
for  the  minister's  family.  When  there  were  twenty- 
six  children  in  the  family,  as  at  least  one  New  Eng- 
land parson  could  boast,  and  when  ministers'  families 
of  twelve  or  fourteen  children  were  far  from  unusual, 
it  is  no  wonder  that  we  find  frequent  votes  to  "  inlarge 
the  ministers  wives  pew  the  breadth  of  the  alley,"  or 
to  "  take  in  the  next  pue  to  the  ministers  wives  pue 
into  her  pue."  The  seats  in  the  gallery  were  univer- 
sally regarded  in  the  early  churches  as  the  most  ex- 
alted, in  every  sense,  in  the  house,  with  the  exception, 
of  course,  of  the  dignity-bearing  foreseat  and  the  few 
private  pews. 

It  is  easy  to  comprehend  what  a  source  of  disap- 
pointed anticipation,  heart-burning  jealousy,  offended 
dignity,  unseemly  pride,  and  bitter  quarrelling  this 
method  of  assigning  seats,  and  ranking  thereby,  must 
have  been  in  those  little  communities.  How  the 
goodwives  must  have  hated  the  seating  committee  ! 
Though  it  was  expressly  ordered,  when  the  committee 
rendered  their  decision,  that  "  the  inhabitants  are  to 
rest  silent  and  sett  down  satysfyed,"  who  can  still 
the  tongue  of  an  envious  woman  or  an  insulted  man  ? 
Though  they  were  Puritans,  they  were  first  of  all 
men  and  women,  and  complaints  and  revolts  were 
frequent.  Judge  Sewall  records  that  one  indignant 
dame  "  treated  Captain  Osgood  very  roughly  ^on  ac- 
count of  seating  the  meeting-house."  To  her  the 
difference  between  a  seat  in  the  first  and  one  in  the 
second  row  was  immeasurably  great.  It  was  not 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  49 

alone  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  who  desired  the  high- 
est seats  in  the  synagogue. 

It  was  found  necessary  at  a  very  early  date  to 
"  dignify  the  meeting,"  which  was  to  make  certain 
seats,  though  in  different  localities,  equal  in  dignity  ; 
thus  could  peace  and  contented  pride  be  partially  re- 
stored. For  instance,  the  seating  committee  in  the 
Sutton  church  used  their  "  best  discresing,"  and  voted 
that  "  the  third  seat  below  be  equal  in  dignity  with 
the  foreseat  in  the  front  gallery,  and  the  fourth  seat 
below  be  equal  in  dignity  with  the  foreseat  in  the 
side  gallery,"  etc.,  thus  making  many  seats  of  equal 
honor.  Of  course  wives  had  to  have  seats  of  equal 
importance  with  those  of  their  husbands,  and  each 
widow  retained  the  dignity  apportioned  to  her  in  her 
husband's  lifetime.  We  can  well  believe  that  much 
"  discresing"  was  necessary  in  dignifying  as  well  as 
in  seating.  Often,  after  building  a  new  meeting- 
house with  all  the  painstaking  and  thoughtful  judg- 
ment that  could  be  shown,  the  dissensions  over  the 
seating  lasted  for  years.  The  conciliatory  fashion  of 
"  dignifying  the  seats  "  clung  long  in  the  Congrega- 
tional churches  of  New  England.  In  East  Hartford 
and  Windsor  it  was  not  abandoned  until  1824. 

Many  men  were  unwilling  to  serve  on  these  seating 
committees,  and  refused  to  "  medle  with  the  seating," 
protesting  against  it  on  account  of  the  odium  that  was 
incurred,  but  they  were  seldom  "  let  off."  Even  so 
influential  and  upright  a  man  as  Judge  Sewall  felt 
a  dread  of  the  responsibility  and  of  the  personal 


50        THE  SABBATH  IN  PUKITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

spleen  he  might  arouse.  He  also  feared  in  one  case 
lest  his  seat-decisions  might,  if  disliked,  work  against 
the  ministerial  peace  of  his  son,  who  had  been  re- 
cently ordained  as  pastor  of  the  church.  Sometimes 
the  difficulty  was  settled  in  this  way :  the  entire 
church  (or  rather  the  male  members)  voted  who 
should  occupy  the  foreseat,  or  the  highest  pew.  and 
the  voted-in  occupants  of  this  seat  of  honor  formed 
a  committee,  who  in  turn  seated  the  others  of  the 
congregation. 

In  the  town  of  Rowley,  "  age,  office,  and  the 
amount  paid  toward  building  the  meeting-house  were 
considered  when  assigning  seats."  Other  towns  had 
very  amusing  and  minute  rules  for  seating.  Each 
year  of  the  age  counted  one  degree.  Military  service 
counted  eight  degrees.  The  magistrate's  office  counted 
ten  degrees.  Every  forty  shillings  paid  in  on  the 
church  rate  counted  one  degree.  We  can  imagine 
the  ambitious  Puritan  adding  up  his  degrees,  and  pay- 
ing in  forty  shillings  more  in  order  to  sit  one  seat 
above  his  neighbor  who  was  a  year  or  two  older. 

In  Pittsfield,  as  early  as  the  year  1765,  the  pews 
were  sold  by  "  vandoo  "  to  the  highest  bidder,  in  order 
to  stop  the  unceasing  quarrels  over  the  seating.  In 
Windham,  Connecticut,  in  1762,  the  adoption  of  this 
pacificatory  measure  only  increased  the  dissension 
when  it  was  discovered  that  some  miserable  "  bach- 
elors who  never  paid  for  more  than  one  head  and  a 
horse  "  had  bid  in  several  of  the  best  pews  in  the 
meeting-house.  In  New  London,  two  women,  sisters- 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  51 

in-law,  were  seated  side  by  side.  Each  claimed  the 
upper  or  more  dignified  seat,  and  they  quarrelled  so 
fiercely  over  the  occupation  of  it  that  they  had  to  be 
brought  before  the  town  meeting. 

In  no  way  could  honor  and  respect  be  shown  more 
satisfactorily  in  the  community  than  by  the  seat 
assigned  in  meeting.  When  Judge  Sewall  married 
his  second  wife,  he  writes  with  much  pride :  "  Mr. 
Oliver  in  the  names  of  the  Overseers  invites  my  Wife 
to  sit  in  the  foreseat.  I  thought  to  have  brought  her 
into  my  pue.  I  thankt  him  and  the  Overseers."  His 
wife  died  in  a  few  months,  and  he  reproached  himself 
for  his  pride  in  this  honor,  and  left  the  seat  which  he 
had  in  the  men's  foreseat.  "  God  in  his  holy  Sover- 
eignty put  my  wife  out  of  the  Fore  Seat.  I  appre- 
hended I  had  Cause  to  be  ashamed  of  my  Sin  and 
loath  myself  for  it,  and  retired  into  my  Pue,"  which 
was  of  course  less  dignified  than  the  foreseat. 

Often,  in  thriving  communities,  the  "  pues  "  and 
benches  did  not  afford  seating  room  enough  for  the 
large  number  who  wished  to  attend  public  worship, 
and  complaints  were  frequent  that  many  were  "  obliged 
to  sit  squeased  on  the  stairs."  Persons  were  allowed 
to  bring  chairs  and  stools  into  the  meeting-house,  and 
place  them  in  the  "  alleys."  These  extra  seats  be- 
came often  such  encumbering  nuisances  that  in  many 
towns  laws  were  passed  abolishing  and  excluding 
them,  or,  as  in  Hadley,  ordering  them  "  back  of  the 
women's  seats."  In  1759  it  was  ordered  in  that  town 
to  "  clear  the  Alleys  of  the  meeting-house  of  chairs 


52   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

and  other  Incumbrances."  Where  the  chairless  peo- 
ple went  is  not  told ;  perhaps  they  sat  in  the  doorway, 
or,  in  the  summer  time,  listened  outside  the  windows. 
One  forward  citizen  of  Hardwicke  had  gradually 
moved  his  chair  down  the  church  alley,  step  by  step, 
Sunday  after  Sunday,  from  one  position  of  dignity  to 
another  still  higher,  until  at  last  he  boldly  invaded 
the  deacons'  seat.  When,  in  the  year  1700,  this 
honored  position  was  forbidden  him,  in  his  chagrin 
and  mortification  he  committed  suicide  by  hanging. 

The  young  men  sat  together  in  rows,  and  the  young 
women  in  corresponding  seats  on  the  other  side  of  the 
house.  In  1677  the  selectmen  of  Newbury  gave  per- 
mission to  a  few  young  women  to  build  a  pew  in  the 
gallery.  It  is  impossible  to  understand  why  this 
should  have  roused  the  indignation  of  the  bachelors 
of  the  town,  but  they  were  excited  and  angered  to 
such  a  pitch  that  they  broke  a  window,  invaded  the 
meeting-house,  and  "  broke  the  pue  in  pessis."  For 
this  sacrilegious  act  they  were  fined  ,£10  each,  and 
sentenced  to  be  whipped  or  pilloried.  In  considera- 
tion, however,  of  the  fact  that  many  of  them  had  been 
brave  soldiers,  the  punishment  was  omitted  when 
they  confessed  and  asked  forgiveness.  This  episode 
is  very  comical ;  it  exhibits  the  Puritan  youth  in  such 
an  ungallant  and  absurd  light.  When,  ten  years 
later,  liberty  was  given  to  ten  young  men,  who  had 
sat  in  the  "  foure  backer  seats  in  the  gallery,"  to 
build  a  pew  in  "  the  hindermost  seat  in  the  gallery 
behind  the  pulpit,"  it  is  not  recorded  that  the  Salem 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  53 

young  women  made  any  objection.  In  the  Woburn 
church,  the  four  daughters  of  one  of  the  most  re- 
spected families  in  the  place  received  permission  to 
build  a  pew  in  which  to  sit.  Here  also  such  indig- 
nant and  violent  protests  were  made  by  the  young 
men  that  the  selectmen  were  obliged  to  revoke  the 
permission.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  the 
bachelors'  discourteous  objections  to  young  women 
being  allowed  to  own  a  pew,  but  no  record  of  their 
reasons  is  given.  Bachelors  were  so  restricted  and 
governed  in  the  colonies  that  perhaps  they  resented 
the  thought  of  any  independence  being  allowed  to 
single  women.  Single  men  could  not  live  alone,  but 
were  forced  to  reside  with  some  family  to  whom  the 
court  assigned  them,  and  to  do  in  all  respects  just 
what  the  court  ordered.  Thus,  in  olden  times,  a  man 
had  to  marry  to  obtain  his  freedom.  The  only  clue 
to  a  knowledge  of  the  cause  of  the  fierce  and  resent- 
ful objection  of  New  England  young  men  to  permit- 
ting the  young  women  of  the  various  congregations 
to  build  and  own  a  "  maids  pue "  is  contained  in 
the  record  of  the  church  of  the  town  of  Scotland, 
Connecticut.  "  An  Hurlburt,  Pashants  and  Mary 
Lazelle,  Younes  Bingham,  prudenc  Hurlburt  and 
Jerusha  meachem  "  were  empowered  to  build  a  pew 
"  provided  they  build  within  a  year  and  raise  ye 
pue  no  higher  than  the  seat  is  on  the  Mens  side." 
"  Never  ye  Less,"  saith  the  chronicle,  "  ye  above  said 
have  built  said  pue  much  higher  than  ye  order,  and 
if  they  do  not  lower  the  same  within  one  month 


54   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

from  this  time  the  society  comitte  shall  take  said 
pue  away."  Do  you  wonder  that  the  bachelors  re- 
sented this  towering  "  maids  pue  ?  "  that  they  would 
not  be  scornfully  looked  down  upon  every  Sabbath  by 
women-folk,  especially  by  a  girl  named  "  meachem  "  ? 
Pashants  and  Younes  and  prudenc  had  to  quickly 
come  down  from  their  unlawfully  high  church-perch 
and  take  a  more  humble  seat,  as  befitted  them ;  thus 
did  their  "  vaulting  ambition  o'erleap  itself  and  fall 
on  the  other  side."  Perhaps  the  Salem  maids  also 
built  too  high  and  imposing  a  pew.  In  Haverhill,  in 
1708,  young  women  were  permitted  to  build  pews, 
provided  they  did  not  "damnify  the  Stairway."  This 
somewhat  profane-sounding  restriction  they  heeded, 
and  the  Haverhill  maids  occupied  their  undamnify- 
ing  "pue"  unmolested.  Medford  young  women,  how- 
ever, in  1701,  when  allowed  only  one  side  gallery  for 
seats,  while  the  young  men  were  assigned  one  side 
and  all  the  front  gallery,  made  such  an  uproar  that 
the  town  had  to  call  a  meeting,  and  restore  to  them 
their  "  woman's  rights"  in  half  the  front  gallery. 

Infants  were  brought  to  church  in  their  mothers' 
arms,  and  on  summer  days  the  young  mothers  often 
sat  at  the  meeting-house  door  or  in  the  porch,  —  if 
porch  there  were,  —  where,  listening  to  the  word  of 
God,  they  could  attend  also  to  the  wants  of  their 
babes.  I  have  heard,  too,  of  a  little  cage,  or  frame, 
which  was  to  be  seen  in  the  early  meeting-houses,  for 
the  purpose  of  holding  children  who  were  too  young 
to  sit  alone,  —  poor  Puritan  babies  !  Little  girls  sat 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  55 

with  their  mothers  or  elder  sisters  on  "  crickets " 
within  the  pews ;  or  if  the  family  were  over-numer- 
ous, the  children  and  crickets  exundated  into  "  the 
alley  without  the  pues."  Often  a  row  of  little  daugh- 
ters of  Zion  sat  on  three-legged  stools  and  low  seats 
the  entire  length  of  the  aisle,  —  weary,  sleepy,  young 
sentinels  "  without  the  gates." 

The  boys,  the  Puritan  boys,  those  wild  animals 
who  were  regarded  with  such  suspicion,  such  intense 
disfavor,  by  all  elderly  Puritan  eyes,  and  who  were 
publicly  stigmatized  by  the  Duxbury  elders  as  "  ye 
wretched  boys  on  ye  Lords  Day,"  were  herded  by 
themselves.  They  usually  sat  on  the  pulpit  and  gal- 
lery stairs,  and  constables  or  tithingmen  were  ap- 
pointed to  watch  over  them  and  control  them.  In 
Salem,  in  167G,  it  was  ordered  that  "  all  ye  boyes  of 
ye  towne  are  and  shall  be  appointed  to  sitt  upon  ye 
three  pair  of  stairs  in  ye  meeting-house  on  ye  Lords 
Day,  and  Wm.  Lord  is  appointed  to  look  after  ye 
boyes  yt  sitte  upon  ye  pulpit  stairs.  Reuben  Guppy 
is  to  look  and  order  soe  many  of  ye  boyes  as  may  be 
convenient,  and  if  any  are  unruly,  to  present  their 
names,  as  the  law  directs."  Nowadays  we  should 
hardly  seat  boys  in  a  group  if  we  wished  them  to  be 
orderly  and  decorous,  and  I  fear  the  man  "  by  the 
name  of  Guppy  "  found  it  no  easy  task  to  preserve 
order  and  due  gravity  among  the  Puritan  boys  in 
Salem  meeting.  In  fact,  the  rampant  boys  behaved 
thus  badly  for  the  very  reason  that  they  were  seated 
together  instead  of  with  their  respective  families;  and 


56   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

not  until  the  fashion  was  universal  of  each  family  sit- 
ting in  a  pew  or  group  by  itself  did  the  boys  in  meet- 
ing behave  like  human  beings  rather  than  like  mis- 
chievous and  unruly  monkeys. 

In  Stratford,  in  1668,  a  tithingman  was  "  appointed 
to  watch  over  the  youths  of  disorderly  carriage,  and 
see  that  they  behave  themselves  comelie,  and  use  such 
raps  and  blows  as  in  his  discretion  meet." 

I  like  to  think  of  those  rows  of  sober-faced  Puritan 
boys  seated  on  the  narrow,  steep  pulpit  stairs,  clad 
in  knee-breeches  and  homespun  flapped  coats,  and 
with  round,  cropped  heads,  miniature  likenesses  in 
dress  and  countenance  (if  not  in  deportment)  of 
their  grave,  stern,  God-fearing  fathers.  Though  they 
were  of  the  sedate  Puritan  blood,  they  were  boys,  and 
they  wriggled  and  twisted,  and  scraped  their  feet  nois- 
ily on  the  sanded  floor ;  and  I  know  full  well  that  the 
square-toed  shoes  of  one  in  whom  "  original  sin " 
waxed  powerful,  thrust  many  a  sly  dig  in  the  ribs  and 
back  of  the  luckless  wight  who  chanced  to  sit  in  front 
of  and  below  him  on  the  pulpit  stairs.  Many  a  dried 
kernel  of  Indian  corn  was  surreptitiously  snapped  at 
the  head  of  an  unwary  neighbor,  and  many  a  sly  word 
was  whispered  and  many  a  furtive  but  audible  "snick- 
er "  elicited  when  the  dread  tithingman  was  "  having 
an  eye-out"  and  administering  "discreet  raps  and 
blows  "  elsewhere. 

One  of  these  wicked  youths  in  Andover  was  brought 
before  the  magistrate,  and  it  was  charged  that  he 
"  Sported  and  played  and  by  Indecent  Gestures  and 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  57 

Wry  Faces  caused  laughter  and  misbehavior  in  the 
Beholders."  The  girls  were  not  one  whit  better  be- 
haved. One  of  "  ye  tything  men  chosen  of  ye  town  of 
Norwich  "  reported  that  "  Tabatha  Morgus  of  s'd  Nor- 
wich Did  on  ye  24th  day  February  it  being  Sabbath 
on  ye  Lordes  Day,  prophane  ye  Lordes  Day  in  ye 
meeting  house  of  ye  west  society  in  ye  time  of  ye 
forenoone  service  on  s'd  Day  by  her  rude  and  Indecent 
Behaviour  in  Laughing  and  Playing  in  ye  time  of  ye 
s'd  Service  which  Doinges  of  ye  s'd  Tabatha  is  against 
ye  peace  of  our  Sovereign  Lord  ye  King,  his  Crown 
and  Dignity."  Wanton  Tabatha  had  to  pay  three 
sailings  sixpence  for  her  ill-timed  mid-winter  frolic. 
Perhaps  she  laughed  to  try  to  keep  warm.  Those 
who  laughed  at  the  misdemeanors  of  others  were 
fined  as  well.  Deborah  Bangs,  a  young  girl,  in  1755 
paid  a  fine  of  five  shillings  for  "  Larfing  in  the  Ware- 
ham  Meeting  House  in  time  of  Public  Worship,"  and 
a  boy  at  the  same  time,  for  the  same  offence,  paid  a 
fine  of  ten  shillings.  He  may  have  laughed  louder 
and  longer.  In  a  law-book  in  which  Jonathan  Trum- 
bull  recorded  the  minor  cases  which  he  tried  as 
justice  of  the  peace,  was  found  this  entry  :  "  His 
Majesties  Tithing  man  entered  complaint  against 
Jona.  and  Susan  Smith,  that  on  the  Lords  Day  dur- 
ing Divine  Service,  they  did  smile"  They  were  found 
guilty,  and  each  was  fined  five  shillings  and  costs,  — » 
poor  smiling  Susan  and  Jonathan. 

Those  wretched  Puritan  boys,  those  "  sons  of  Be- 
lial," whittled,  too,  and  cut  the  woodwork  and  benches 


58   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

of  the  meeting-house  in  those  early  days,  just  as  their 
descendants  have  ever  since  hacked  and  cut  the 
benches  and  desks  in  country  schoolhouses,  —  though 
how  they  ever  eluded  the  vigilant  eye  and  ear  of  the 
ubiquitous  tithingman  long  enough  to  whittle  will 
ever  remain  an  unsolved  mystery  of  the  past.  This 
early  forerunning  evidence  of  what  has  become  a 
characteristic  Yankee  trait  and  habit  was  so  annoy- 
ingly  and  extensively  exhibited  in  Medford,  in  1729, 
that  an  order  was  passed  to  prosecute  and  punish  "  all 
who  cut  the  seats  in  the  meeting-house." 

Few  towns  were  content  to  have  one  tithingman 
and  one  staff,  but  ordered  that  there  should  be  a 
guardian  set  over  the  boys  in  every  corner  of  the 
meeting-house.  In  Hanover  it  was  ordered  "  That 
there  be  some  sticks  set  up  in  various  places  in  the 
meeting-house,  and  fit  persons  by  them  and  to  use 
them."  I  doubt  not  that  the  sticks  were  well  used, 
and  Hanover  boys  were  well  rapped  in  meeting. 

The  Norwalk  people  come  down  through  history 
shining  with  a  halo  of  gentle  lenity,  for  their 
tithingman  was  ordered  to  bear  a  short,  small  stick 
only,  and  he  was  "  Desired  to  use  it  with  clemency." 
However,  if  any  boy  proved  "  incoridgable,"  he  could 
be  "  presented "  before  the  elders ;  and  perhaps  he 
would  rather  have  been  treated  as  were  Hartford  boys 
by  cruel  Hartford  church  folk,  who  ordered  that  if 
"  any  boye  shall  be  taken  playing  or  misbehaving  him- 
self in  the  time  of  publick  worship  whether  in  the 
meeting-house  or  about  the  walls  he  shall  be  ex- 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  59 

amined  and  punished  at  the  present  publickly  be- 
fore the  assembly  depart."  Parson  Chauncey,  of 
Durham,  when  a  boy  misbehaved  in  meeting,  and  was 
"  punched  up "  by  the  tithingman,  often  stopped  in 
his  sermon,  called  the  godless  young  offender  by 
name,  and  asked  him  to  come  to  the  parsonage  the 
next  day.  Some  very  tender  and  beautiful  lessons 
were  taught  to  these  Durham  boys  at  these  Monday 
morning  interviews,  and  have  descended  to  us  in 
tradition ;  and  the  good  Mr.  Chauncey  stands  out  a 
shining  light  of  Christian  patience  and  forbearance 
at  a  time  when  every  other  New  England  minister, 
from  John  Cotton  down,  preached  and  practised  the 
stern  repression  and  sharp  correction  of  all  children, 
and  chanted  together  in  solemn  chorus,  "  Foolishness 
is  bound  up  in  the  heart  of  a  child." 

One  vicious  tithingman  invented,  and 

to  exercise  on  the  boys,  a  punishment  whit .„  V44V, 

refinement  of  cruelty.  He  walked  up  to  the  l&gjif&g, 
sporting,  or  whittling  boy,  took  him  by  the  collalr-^*- 
the  arm,  led  him  ostentatiously  across  the  meeting- 
house, and  seated  him  by  his  shamefaced  mother  on 
the  women's  side.  It  was  as  if  one  grandly  proud  in 
kneebreeches  should  be  forced  to  walk  abroad  in  petti- 
coats. Far  rather  would  the  disgraced  boy  have  been 
whacked  soundly  with  the  heavy  knob  of  the  tithing- 
man's  staff ;  for  bodily  pain  is  soon  forgotten,  while 
mortifying  abasement  lingers  long. 

The  tithingman  could  also  take  any  older  youth 
who  misbehaved  or  "  acted  unsivill  "  in  meeting  from 


60   THE  SABBATH  IN  PUEITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

his  manly  seat  with  the  grown  men,  and  force  him  to 
sit  again  with  the  boys ;  "  if  any  over  sixteen  are  dis- 
orderly, they  shall  be  ordered  to  said  seats."  Not 
only  could  these  men  of  authority  keep  the  boys  in 
order  during  meeting,  but  they  also  had  full  control 
during  the  nooning,  and  repressed  and  "restrained 
and  vigorously  corrected  the  luckless  boys  during  the 
midday  hours.  When  seats  in  the  galleries  grew  to 
be  regarded  as  inferior  to  seats  and  pews  on  the 
ground  floor,  the  boys,  who  of  course  must  have  the 
worst  place  in  the  house,  were  relegated  from  the  pul- 
pit stairs  to  pews  in  the  gallery,  and  these  square, 
shut-off  pews  grew  to  be  what  Dr.  Porter  called  "  the 
Devil's  play-houses,"  and  turbulent  outbursts  were 
frequent  enough. 

The  little  boys  still  sat  downstairs  under  their  par- 
ents' watchful  eyes.  "No  child  under  10  alowed  to 
go  up  Gailary."  In  the  Sutherland  church,  if  the 
big  boys  (who  ought  to  have  known  better)  "  behaved 
unseemly,"  one  of  the  tithing-men  who  "  took  turns 
to  set  in  the  Galary  "  was  ordered  "to  bring  Such 
Bois  out  of  the  Galary  &  set  them  before  the  Deacon's 
Seat"  with  the  small  boys.  In  Plainfield,  Connecti- 
cut, the  "  pestigeous  "  boys  managed  to  invent  a  new 
form  of  annoyance,  —  they  "  damnified  the  glass  ; " 
and  a  church  regulation  had  to  be  passed  to  prevent, 
or  rather  to  try  to  prevent  them  from  "  opening  the 
windows  or  in  any  way  damnifying  the  glass."  It 
was  doubtless  hot  work  scuffling  and  wrestling  in  the 
close,  shut-in  pews  high  up  under  the  roof,  and  they 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  61 

naturally  wished  to  cool  down  by  opening  or  breaking 
the  windows.  Grown  persons  could  not  inconsider- 
ately open  the  church  windows  either.  "  The  Con- 
stables are  desired  to  take  notic  of  the  persons  that 
open  the  windows  in  the  tyme  of  publick  worship." 
No  rheumatic-y  draughts,  no  bronchitis-y  damps,  no 
pure  air  was  allowed  to  enter  the  New  England  meet- 
ing-house. The  church  doubtless  took  a  vote  before 
it  allowed  a  single  window  to  be  opened. 

In  Westfield,  Massachusetts,  the  boys  became  so 
abominably  rampant  that  the  church  formally  de- 
cided "  that  if  there  is  not  a  Reformation  Respecting 
the  Disorders  in  the  Pews  built  on  the  Great  Beam 
in  the  time  of  Publick  Worship  the  comite  can  pul 
it  down." 

The  fashion  of  seating  the  boys  in  pews  by  them- 
selves was  slow  of  abolishment  in  many  of  the  churches. 
In  Windsor,  Connecticut,  "  boys'  pews  "  were  a  feature 
of  the  church  until  1845.  As  years  rolled  on,  the 
tithingmen  became  restricted  in  their  authority  :  they 
could  no  longer  administer  "  raps  and  blows  ; "  they 
were  forced  to  content  themselves  with  loud  rappings 
on  the  floor,  and  pointing  with  a  staff  or  with  a  con- 
demning finger  at  the  misdemeanant.  At  last  the 
deacons  usurped  these  functions,  and  if  rapping  and 
pointing  did  not  answer  the  purpose  of  establishing 
order  (if  the  boy  "  psisted"  ),  led  the  stubborn  of- 
fender out  of  meeting ;  and  they  had  full  authority 
soundly  to  thrash  the  "  wretched  boy  "  on  the  horse- 
block. Rev.  Dr.  Dakin  tells  the  story  that,  hearing  a 


62   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

terrible  noise  and  disturbance  while  he  was  praying 
in  a  church  in  Quincy,  he  felt  constrained  to  open  his 
eyes  to  ascertain  the  cause  thereof  ;  and  he  beheld  a 
red-haired  boy  firmly  clutching  the  railing  on  the 
front  edge  of  the  gallery,  while  a  venerable  deacon 
as  firmly  clutched  the  boy.  The  young  rebel  held 
fast,  and  the  correcting  deacon  held  fast  also,  until 
at  last  the  balustrade  gave  way,  and  boy,  deacon,  and 
railing  fell  together  with  a  resounding  crash.  Then, 
rising  from  the  wooden  de*bris,  the  thoroughly  subdued 
boy  and  the  triumphant  deacon  left  the  meeting-house 
to  finish  their  little  affair ;  and  unmistakable  swishing 
sounds,  accompanied  by  loud  wails  and  whining  pro- 
testations, were  soon  heard  from  the  region  of  the 
horse-sheds.  Parents  never  resented  such  chastis- 
ings;  it  was  expected,  and  even  desired,  that  boys 
should  be  whipped  freely  by  every  school-master  and 
person  of  authority  who  chose  so  to  do. 

In  some  old  church-orders  for  seating,  boys  were 
classed  with  negroes,  and  seated  with  them ;  but  in 
nearly  all  towns  the  negroes  had  seats  by  themselves. 
The  black  women  were  all  seated  on  a  long  bench  or 
in  an  inclosed  pew  labelled  "  B.  W.,"  and  the  negro 
men  in  one  labelled  "  B.  M."  One  William  Mills,  a 
jesting  soul,  being  asked  by  a  pompous  stranger  where 
he  could  sit  in  meeting,  told  the  visitor  that  he  was 
welcome  to  sit  in  Bill  Mills's  pew,  and  that  it  was 
marked  "  B.  M."  The  man,  who  chanced  to  be 
ignorant  of  the  local  custom  of  marking  the  negro 
seats,  accepted  the  kind  invitation,  and  seated  himself 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  63 

in  the  black  men's  pew,  to  the  delight  of  Bill  Mills, 
the  amusement  of  the  boys,  the  scandal  of  the  elders, 
and  his  own  disgust. 

Sometimes  a  little  pew  or  short  gallery  was  built 
high  up  among  the  beams  and  joists  over  the  staircase 
which  led  to  the  first  gallery,  and  was  called  «the 
"  swallows'  nest,"  or  the  "  roof  pue,"  or  the  "  second 
gallery."  It  was  reached  by  a  steep,  ladder-like 
staircase,  and  was  often  assigned  to  the  negroes  and 
Indians  of  the  congregation. 

Often  "  ye  seat  between  ye  Deacons  seat  and  ye 
pulpit  is  for  persons  hard  of  hearing  to  sett  in."  In 
nearly  every  meeting  a  bench  or  pew  full  of  aged 
men  might  be  seen  near  the  pulpit,  and  this  seat  was 
called,  with  Puritan  plainness  of  speech,  the  "  Deaf 
Pew."  Some  very  deaf  church  members  (when  the 
boys  were  herded  elsewhere)  sat  on  the  pulpit  stairs, 
and  even  in  the  pulpit,  alongside  the  preacher,  where 
they  disconcertingly  upturned  their  great  tin  ear- 
trumpets  directly  in  his  face.  The  persistent  joining 
in  the  psalm-singing  by  these  deaf  old  soldiers  and 
farmers  was  one  of  the  bitter  trials  which  the  leader 
of  the  choir  had  to  endure. 

The  singers'  seats  were  usually  in  the  galleries ; 
sometimes  upon  the  ground  floor,  in  the  "  hind-row 
on  either  side."  Occasionally  the  choir  sat  in  two 
rows  of  seats  that  extended  quite  across  the  floor  of 
the  house,  in  front  of  the  deacons'  seat  and  the  pulpit. 
The  men  singers  then  sat  facing  the  congregation, 
while  the  women  singers  faced  the  pulpit.  Between 


64        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

them  ran  a  long  rack  for  the  psalm-books.  When 
they  sang  they  stood  up,  and  bawled  and  fugued  in 
each  other's  faces.  Often  a  square  pew  was  built  for 
the  singers,  and  in  the  centre  of  this  enclosure  was  a 
table,  on  which  were  laid,  when  at  rest,  the  psalm- 
boojts.  When  they  sang,  the  choir  thus  formed  a 
hollow  square,  as  does  any  determined  band,  for 
strength. 

One  other  seat  in  the  old  Puritan  meeting-house, 
a  seat  of  gloom,  still  throws  its  darksome  shadow 
down  through  the  years,  —  the  stool  of  repentance. 
"  Barbarous  and  cruel  punishments  "  were  forbidden 
by  the  statutes  of  the  new  colony,  but  on  this  terrible 
soul-rack  the  shrinking,  sullen,  or  defiant  form  of 
some  painfully  humiliated  man  or  woman  sat,  crushed, 
stunned,  stupefied  by  overwhelming  disgrace,  through 
the  long  Christian  sermon ;  cowering  before  the  hard, 
pitiless  gaze  of  the  assembled  and  godly  congregation, 
and  the  cold  rebuke  of  the  pious  minister's  averted 
face ;  bearing  on  the  poor  sinful  head  a  deep-branding 
paper  inscribed  in  "  Capitall  Letters  "  with  the  name 
of  some  dark  or  mysterious  crime,  or  wearing  on  the 
sleeve  some  strange  and  dread  symbol,  or  on  the 
breast  a  scarlet  letter. 

Let  us  thank  God  that  these  soul-blasting  and 
hope-killing  exposures  —  so  degrading  to  the  criminal, 
so  demoralizing  to  the  community,  —  these  foul,  in- 
human blots  on  our  fair  and  dearly  loved  Puritan 
Lord's  Day,  were  never  frequent,  nor  did  the  form  of 
punishment  obtain  for  a  long  time.  In  1681  two 


SEATING  THE  MEETING.  65 

women  were  sentenced  to  sit  during  service  on  a  high 
stool  in  the  middle  alley  of  the  Salem  meeting-house, 
having  on  their  heads  a  paper  bearing  the  name  of 
their  crime  ;  and  a  woman  in  Agamentlcus  at  about 
the  same  date  was  ordered  "  to  stand  in  a  white  sheet 
publicly  two  several  Sabbath-Days  with  the  mark  of 
her  offence  on  her  forehead."  These  are  the  latest 
records  of  this  punishment  that  I  have  chanced  to 
see. 

Thus,  from  old  church  and  town  records,  we  plainly 
^discover  that  each  laic,  deacon,  elder,  criminal,  singer, 
and  even  the  ungodly  boy  had  his  alloted  place  as 
absolutely  assigned  to  him  in  the  old  meeting-house 
as  was  the  pulpit  to  the  parson.  Much  has  been  said 
in  semi-ridicule  of  this  old  custom  of  "seating"  and 
"  dignifying,"  yet  it  did  not  in  reality  differ  much 
from  our  modern  way  of  selling  the  best  pews  to  who- 
ever will  pay  the  most.  Perhaps  the  old  way  was 
the  better,  since,  in  the  early  churches,  age,  educa- 
tion, dignity,  and  reputation  were  considered  as  well 
as  wealth. 


VI. 

THE  TITHINGMAN  AND  THE   SLEEPEES. 

THE  most  grotesque,  the  most  extraordinary,  the 
most  highly  colored  figure  in  the  dull  New  England 
church-life  was  the  tithingman.  This  fairly  bur-^ 
lesque  creature  impresses  me  always  with  a  sense  of 
unreality,  of  incongruity,  of  strange  happening,  like 
a  jesting  clown  in  a  procession  of  monks,  like  a  strain 
of  low  comedy  in  the  sober  religious  drama  of  early 
New  England  Puritan  life ;  so  out  of  place,  so  unreal 
is  this  fussy,  pompous,  restless  tithingman,  with  his 
fantastic  wand  of  office  fringed  with  dangling  fox- 
tails,—  creaking,  bustling,  strutting,  peering  around 
the  quiet  meeting-house,  prodding  and  rapping  the 
restless  boys,  waking  the  drowsy  sleepers ;  for  they 
slept  in  country  churches  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
notwithstanding  dread  of  fierce  correction,  just  as 
they  nod  and  doze  and  softly  puff,  unawakened  and 
unrebuked,  in  village  churches  throughout  New  Eng- 
land in  the  nineteenth  century. 

This  absurd  and  distorted  type  of  the  English  church 
beadle,  this  colonial  sleep  banisher,  was  equipped  with 
a  long  staff,  heavily  knobbed  at  one  end,  with  which 
he  severely  and  pitilessly  rapped  the  heads  of  the  too 


THE  TTTHINGMAN  AND  THE  SLEEPERS.  67 

sleepy  men,  and  the  too  wide-awake  boys.  From  the 
other  end  of  this  wand  of  office  depended  a  long  fox- 
tail, or  a  hare's-foot,  which  he  softly  thrust  in  the 
faces  of  the  sleeping  Priscillas,  Charitys,  and  Hope- 
stills,  and  which  gently  brushed  and  tickled  them  into 
reverent  but  startled  wakefulness. 

One  zealous  but  too  impetuous  tithingman  in  his 
pious  ardor  of  office  inadvertently  applied  the  wrong 
end,  the  end  with  the  heavy  knob,  the  masculine  end, 
to  a  drowsy  matron's  head ;  and  for  this  severely 
ungallant  mistake  he  was  cautioned  by  the  ruling 
elders  to  thereafter  use  "  more  discresing  and  less 
haist." 

Another  over-watchful  Newbury  "awakener  "  rapped 
on  the  head  a  nodding  man  who  protested  indignantly 
that  he  was  wide-awake,  and  was  only  bowing  in 
solemn  assent  and  approval  of  the  minister's  argu- 
ments. Roger  Scott,  of  Lynn,  in  1643  struck  the 
tithingman  who  thus  roughly  and  suddenly  wakened 
him  ;  and  poor  sleepy  and  bewildered  Roger,  who  is 
branded  through  all  time  as  "  a  common  sleeper  at 
the  publick  exercise,"  was,  for  this  most  naturally 
resentful  act,  but  also  most  shockingly  grave  offence, 
soundly  whipped,  as  a  warning  both  to  keep  awake 
and  not  to  strike  back  in  meeting. 

Obadiah  Turner,  of  Lynn,  gives  in  his  Journal  a 
sad,  sad  disclosure  of  total  depravity  which  was  ex- 
posed by  one  of  these  sudden  church-awakenings, 
and  the  story  is  best  told  in  the  journalist's  own 
vivid  words :  — 


68        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

"June  3,  1646. — Allen  Bridges  hath  bin  chose  to 
wake  ye  sleepers  in  meeting.  And  being  much  proude 
of  his  place,  must  needs  have  a  fox  taile  fixed  to  ye  ende 
of  a  long  staff  wherewith  he  may  brush  ye  faces  of  them 
yt  will  have  napps  in  time  of  discourse,  likewise  a  sharpe 
thorne  whereby  he  may  pricke  such  as  be  most  sound.  On 
ye  last  Lord  his  day,  as  hee  strutted  about  ye  meeting- 
house, he  did  spy  Mr.  Tomlins  sleeping  with  much  com- 
fort, hys  head  kept  steadie  by  being  in  ye  corner,  and  his 
hand  grasping  ye  rail.  And  soe  spying,  Allen  did  quickly 
thrust  his  staff  behind  Dame  Ballard  and  give  him  a 
grievous  prick  upon  ye  hand.  Whereupon  Mr.  Tomlius 
did  spring  vpp  mch  above  ye  floore,  and  with  terrible 
force  strike  hys  hand  against  ye  wall ;  and  also,  to  ye 
great  wonder  of  all,  prophanlie  exclaim  in  a  loud  voice, 
curse  ye  wood-chuck,  he  dreaming  so  it  seemed  yt  a  wood- 
chuck  had  seized  and  bit  his  hand.  But  on  coming  to 
know  where  he  was,  and  ye  greate  scandall  he  had  com- 
mitted, he  seemed  much  abashed,  but  did  not  speak. 
And  I  think  he  will  not  soon  again  goe  to  sleepe  in 
meeting.'* 

How  clear  the  picture !  Can  you  not  see  it  ?  —  the 
warm  June  sunlight  streaming  in  through  the  narrow, 
dusty  windows  of  the  old  meeting-house ;  the  armed 
watcher  at  the  door ;  the  Puritan  men  and  women  in 
their  sad-colored  mantles  seated  sternly  upright  on 
the  hard  narrow  benches ;  the  black-gowned  minister, 
the  droning  murmur  of  whose  sleepy  voice  mingles 
with  the  out-door  sounds  of  the  rustle  of  leafy 
branches,  the  song  of  summer  birds,  the  hum  of  buzz- 
ing insects,  and  the  muffled  stamping  of  horses'  feet; 


THE  TITHINGMAN  AND  THE  SLEEPERS.  69 

the  restless  boys  on  the  pulpit-stairs ;  the  tired,  sleep- 
ing Puritan  with  his  head  thrown  back  in  the  corner 
of  the  pew ;  the  vain,  strutting,  tithingman  with  his 
fantastic  and  thorned  staff  of  office ;  and  then  —  the 
sudden,  electric  wakening,  and  the  consternation  of 
the  whole  staid  and  pious  congregation  at  such  terri- 
ble profanity  in  the  house  of  God.  Ah  !  —  it  was  not 
two  hundred  and  forty  years  ago ;  when  I  read  the 
quaint  words  my  Puritan  blood  stirs  my  drowsy  brain, 
and  I  remember  it  all  well,  just  as  I  saw  it  last 
summer  in  June. 

Another  catastrophe  from  too  fierce  zeal  on  the  part 
of  the  tithingman  is  recorded.  An  old  farmer,  worn 
out  with  a  hard  Saturday's  work  at  sheep-washing, 
fell  asleep  ere  the  hour-glass  had  once  been  turned. 
Though  he  was  a  man  of  dignity,  for  he  sat  in  his  own 
pew,  he  could  not  escape  the  rod  of  the  pragmatical 
tithingman.  Being  rudely  disturbed,  but  not  wholly 
wakened,  the  bewildered  sheep-farmer  sprung  to  his 
feet,  seized  his  astonished  and  mortified  wife  by  the 
shoulders  and  shook  her  violently,  shouting  at  the  top 
of  his  voice,  "Haw  back!  haw  back!  Stand  still, 
will  ye  ?"  Poor  goodman  and  goodwife  !  many  years 
elapsed  ere  they  recovered  from  that  keen  disgrace. 

The  ministers  encouraged  and  urged  the  tithing- 
men  to  faithfully  perform  their  allotted  work.  One 
early  minister  "  did  not  love  sleepers  in  ye  meeting- 
house, and  would  stop  short  in  ye  exercise  and  call 
pleasantlie  to  wake  ye  sleepers,  and  once  of  a  warm 
Summer  afternoon  he  did  take  hys  hat  off  from  ye 


70   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

pegg  in  ye  beam,  and  put  it  on,  saying  he  would  go 
home  and  feed  his  fowles  and  come  back  again,  and 
maybe  their  sleepe  would  be  ended,  and  they  readie 
to  hear  ye  remainder  of  hys  discourse."  Another 
time  he  suggested  that  they  might  like  better  the 
Church  of  England  service  of  sitting  down  and  stand- 
ing up,  and  we  can  be  sure  that  this  "  was  competent 
to  keepe  their  eyes  open  for  a  twelvemonth." 

All  this  was  in  the  church  of  Mr.  Whiting,  of  Lynn, 
a  somewhat  jocose  Puritan,  —  if  jocularity  in  a  Puri- 
tan is  not  too  anomalous  an  attribute  to  have  ever 
existed.  We  can  be  sure  that  there  was  neither 
sleeping  nor  jesting  allusion  to  such  an  irreverence 
in  Mr.  Mather's,  Mr.  Welde's,  or  Mr.  Cotton's  meet- 
ings. In  many  rigidly  severe  towns,  as  in  Ports- 
mouth in  1662  and  in  Boston  in  1667,  it  was  ordered 
by  the  selectmen  as  a  proper  means  of  punishment 
that  a  "  cage  be  made  or  some  other  means  invented 
for  such  as  sleepe  on  the  Lord's  Daie."  Perhaps 
they  woke  the  offender  up  and  rudely  and  sum- 
marily dragged  him  out  and  caged  him  at  once  and 
kept  him  thus  prisoned  throughout  the  nooning,  —  a 
veritable  jail-bird. 

A  rather  unconventional  and  eccentric  preacher  in 
Newbury  awoke  one  sleeper  in  a  most  novel  manner. 
The  first  name  of  the  sleeping  man  was  Mark,  and 
the  preacher  in  his  sermon  made  use  of  these  Bib- 
lical words :  "  I  say  unto  you,  mark  the  perfect  man 
and  behold  the  upright."  But  in  the  midst  of  his 
low,  monotonous  sermon-voice  he  roared  out  the  word 


THE  TITHINGMAN  AND  THE  SLEEPERS.  71 

"  mark  "  in  a  loud  shout  that  brought  the  dozing  Mark 
to  his  feet,  bewildered  but  wide  awake. 

Mr.  Moody,  of  York,  Maine,  employed  a  similar 
device  to  awaken  and  mortify  the  sleepers  in  meeting' 
He  shouted  "  Fire,  fire,  fire  !  "  and  when  the  startled 
and  blinking  men  jumped  up,  calling  out  "  Where  ? " 
he  roared  back  in  turn,  "  In  hell,  for  sleeping  sin- 
ners." Rev.  Mr.  Phillips,  of  Andover,  in  1755,  openly 
rebuked  his  congregation  for  "  sleeping  away  a  great 
part  of  the  sermon  ;  "  and  on  the  Sunday  following 
an  earthquake  shock  which  was  felt  throughout  New 
England,  he  said  he  hoped  the  "  Glorious  Lord  of  the 
Sabbath  had  given  them  such  a  shaking  as  would 
keep  them  awake  through  one  sermon-time."  Other 
and  more  autocratic  parsons  did  not  hesitate  to 
call  out  their  sleeping  parishioners  plainly  by  name, 
sternly  telling  them  also  to  "  Wake  up  !  "  A  minis- 
ter in  Brunswick,  Maine,  thus  pointedly  wakened  one 
of  his  sweet-sleeping  church-attendants,  a  man  of 
some  dignity  and  standing  in  the  community,  and 
received  the  shocking  and  tautological  answer,  "  Mind 
your  own  business,  and  go  on  with  your  sermon." 

The  women  would  sometimes  nap  a  little  without 
being  discovered.  "  Ye  women  may  sometimes  sleepe 
and  none  know  by  reason  of  their  enormous  bonnets. 
Mr.  Whiting  doth  pleasantlie  say  from  ye  pulpit  hee 
doth  seeme  to  be  preaching  to  stacks  of  straw  with 
men  among  them." 

Prom  this  seventeenth-century  comment  upon  the 
size  of  the  women's  bonnets,  it  may  be  seen  that 


72        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

objections  to  women's  overwhelming  and  obscuring 
headgear  in  public  assemblies  are  not  entirely  com- 
plaining protests  of  modern  growth.  Other  records 
refer  to  the  annoyance  from  the  exaggerated  size  of 
bonnets.  In  1769  the  church  in  Andover  openly 
"  put  to  vote  whether  the  parish  Disapprove  of  the 
Female  sex  sitting  with  their  Hats  on  in  the  Meeting- 
house in  time  of  Divine  Service  as  being  Indecent." 
The  parish  did  Disapprove,  with  a  capital  D,  for  the 
vote  passed  in  the  affirmative.  There  is  no  record, 
however,  to  tell  whether  the  Indecent  fashion  was 
abandoned,  but  I  warrant  no  tithingman  was  pow- 
erful enough  to  make  Andover  women  take  off  their 
proudly  worn  Sunday  bonnets  if  they  did  not  want 
to.  Another  town  voted  that  it  was  the  "  Town's 
Mind  "  that  the  women  should  take  off  their  bonnets 
and  "  hang  them  on  the  peggs,"  as  did  the  men  their 
headgear.  But  the  Town's  Mind  was  not  a  Woman's 
Mind  ;  and  the  big-bonnet  wearers,  vain  though  they 
were  Puritans,  did  as  they  pleased  with  their  own 
bonnets.  And  indeed,  in  spite  of  votes  and  in  spite 
of  expostulations,  the  female  descendants  of  the  Puri- 
tans, through  constantly  recurring  waves  of  fashion, 
have  ever  since  been  indecently  wearing  great  obscur- 
ing hats  and  bonnets  in  public  assemblies,  even  up  to 
the  present  day. 

The  tithingman  had  other  duties  than  awakening 
the  sleepers  and  looking  after  "  the  boyes  that  playes 
and  rapping  those  boyes,"  —  in  short,  seeing  that  every 
one  was  attentive  in  meeting  except  himself,  —  and 


THE  TITHINGMAN  AND  THE  SLEEPERS.  73 

the  duties  and  powers  of  the  office  varied  in  different 
communities.  Several  of  these  officers  were  appointed 
in  each  parish.  In  Newbury,  in  1688,  there  were 
twenty  tithingmen,  and  in  Salem  twenty-five.  They 
were  men  of  authority,  not  only  on  Sunday,  but 
throughout  the  entire  week.  Each  had  several  neigh- 
boring families  (usually  ten,  as  the  word  "  tithing " 
would  signify)  under  his  charge  to  watch  during  the 
week,  to  enforce  the  learning  of  the  catechism  at 
home,  especially  by  the  children,  and  sometimes  he 
heard  them  "  Say  their  Chatachize."  These  families 
he  also  watched  specially  on  the  Sabbath,  and  re- 
ported whether  all  the  members  thereof  attended 
public  worship.  Not  content  with  mounting  guard 
over  the  boys  on  Sundays,  he  also  watched  on  week- 
days to  keep  boys  and  "  all  persons  from  swimming 
in  the  water."  Do  you  think  his  duties  were  light  in 
July  and  August,  when  school  was  out,  to  watch  the 
boys  of  ten  families  ?  One  man  watching  one  family 
cannot  prevent  such  "  violations  of  the  peace "  in 
country  towns  now-a-days.  He  sometimes  inspected 
the  "  ordinaries "  and  made  complaint  of  any  dis- 
orders which  he  there  discovered,  and  gave  in  the 
names  of  "  idle  tiplers  and  gamers,"  and  he  could 
warn  the  tavern-keeper  to  sell  no  more  liquor  to  any 
toper  whom  he  knew  or  fancied  was  drinking  too 
heavily.  Josselyn  complained  bitterly  that  during 
his  visit  to  New  England  in  1663  at  "  houses  of  en- 
tertainment called  ordinaries  into  which  a  stranger 
went,  he  was  presently  followed  by  one  appointed  to 


74    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

that  office  who  would  thrust  himself  into  his  com- 
pany uninvited,  and  if  he  called  for  more  drink  than 
the  officer  thought  in  his  judgment  he  could  soberly 
bear  away,  he  would  presently  countermand  it,  and 
appoint  the  proportion  beyond  which  he  could  not 
get  one  drop."  The  tithingman  had  a  "  spetial  eye- 
out"  on  all  bachelors,  who  were  also  carefully  spied 
upon  by  the  constables,  deacons,  elders,  and  heads  of 
families  in  general.  He  might,  perhaps,  help  to  col- 
lect the  ministerial  rate,  though  his  principal  duty  was 
by  no  means  the  collecting  of  tithes.  He  "worned 
peple  out  of  ye  towne."  This  warning  was  not  at 
all  because  the  new-comers  were  objectionable  or  un- 
desired,  but  was  simply  a  legal  form  of  precaution, 
so  that  the  parish  would  never  be  liable  for  the  keep- 
ing of  the  "  worned "  ones  in  case  they  thereafter 
became  paupers.  He  administered  the  "  oath  of 
fidelity"  to  new  inhabitants.  The  tithingman  also 
watched  to  see  that  "  no  young  people  walked  abroad 
on  the  eve  of  the  Sabbath," — that  is,  on  a  Saturday 
night.  He  also  marked  and  reported  all  those  "  who 
lye  at  home,"  and  others  who  "  prophanely  behaved, 
lingered  without  dores  at  meeting  time  on  the  Lordes 
Daie,"  all  the  "  sons  of  Belial  strutting  about,  setting 
on  fences,  and  otherwise  desecrating  the  day."  These 
last  two  classes  of  offenders  were  first  admonished  by 
the  tithingman,  then  "  Sett  in  stocks,"  and  then  cited 
before  the  Court.  They  were  also  confined  in  the 
cage  on  the  meeting-house  green,  with  the  Lord's 
Day  sleepers.  The  tithingman  could  arrest  any  who 


THE  TITHINGMAN  AND  THE  SLEEPERS.  75 

walked  or  rode  at  too  fast  a  pace  to  and  from  meet- 
ing, and  he  could  arrest  any  who  "  walked  or  rode 
unnecessarily  on  the  Sabath."  Great  and  small 
alike  were  under  his  control,  as  this  notice  from 
the  "  Columbian  Centinel "  of  December,  1789, 
abundantly  proves.  It  is  entitled  "  The  President 
and  the  Tything  man  :  "  — 

"  The  President,  on  his  return  to  New  York  from  his 
late  tour  through  Connecticut,  having  missed  his  way  on 
Saturday,  was  obliged  to  ride  a  few  miles  on  Sunday 
morning  in  order  to  gain  the  town  at  which  he  had  pre- 
viously proposed  to  have  attended  divine  service.  Before 
he  arrived  however  he  was  met  by  a  Tything  man,  who 
commanding  him  to  stop,  demanded  the  occasion  of  his 
riding ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  President  had  informed 
him  of  every  circumstance  and  promised  to  go  no  further 
than  the  town  intended  that  the  Tything  man  would  permit 
him  to  proceed  on  his  journey." 

Various  were  the  subterfuges  to  outwit  the  tithing- 
man  and  elude  his  vigilance  on  the  Sabbath.  We 
all  remember  the  amusing  incident  in  "  Oldtown 
Folks."  A  similar  one  really  happened.  Two  gay 
young  sparks  driving  through  the  town  on  the  Sab- 
bath were  stopped  by  the  tithingman  ;  one  offender 
said  mournfully  in  excuse  of  his  Sabbath  travel, 
"  My  grandmother  is  lying  dead  in  the  next  town." 
Being  allowed  to  drive  on,  he  stood  up  in  his  wagon 
when  at  a  safe  distance  and  impudently  shouted  back, 
"  And  she  's  been  lying  dead  in  the  graveyard  there 
for  thirty  years." 


76   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Thus  it  may  be  seen  that  the  ancient  tithingmau 
was  pre-eminently  a  general  snook,  to  use  an  old  and 
expressive  word,  —  an  informer,  both  in  and  out  of 
meeting,  —  a  very  necessary,  but  somewhat  odious, 
and  certainly  at  times  very  absurd  officer.  He  was 
in  a  degree  a  constable,  a  selectman,  a  teacher,  a  tax- 
collector,  an  inspector,  a  sexton,  a  home-watcher,  and 
above  all,  a  Puritan  Bumble,  whose  motto  was  Hie  et 
ubique.  He  was,  in  fact,  a  general  law-enforcer  and 
order-keeper,  whose  various  duties,  wherever  still  ne- 
cessary and  still  performed,  are  now  apportioned  to 
several  individuals.  The  ecclesiastical  functions  and 
authority  of  the  tithingmau  lingered  long  after  the 
civil  powers  had  been  removed  or  had  gradually 
passed  away  from  his  office.  Persons  are  now  liv- 
ing who  in  their  early  and  unruly  youth  were  rapped 
at  and  pointed  at  by  a  New  England  tithingman  when 
they  laughed  or  were  noisy  in  meeting. 


vn. 

THE  LENGTH  OF  THE  SEKVICE. 

WATCHES  were  unknown  in  the  early  colonial  days 
of  New  England,  and  for  a  long  time  after  their  in- 
troduction both  watches  and  clocks  were  costly  and 
rare.  John  Davenport  of  New  Haven,  who  died  in 
1670,  left  a  clock  to  his  heirs ;  and  E.  Needham,  who 
died  in  1677,  left  a  "  Striking  clock,  a  watch,  and  a 
Larum  that  dus  not  Strike,"  worth  .£5;  these  are 
perhaps  the  first  records  of  the  ownership  of  clocks 
and  watches  in  New  England.  The  time  of  the  day 
was  indicated  to  our  forefathers  in  their  homes  by 
"  noon  marks  "  on  the  floor  or  window-seats,  and  by 
picturesque  sundials  ;  and  in  the  civil  and  religious 
meetings  the  passage  of  time  was  marked  by  a  strong 
brass-bound  hour-glass,  which  stood  on  a  desk  below 
or  beside  the  pulpit,  or  which  was  raised  on  a  slender 
iron  rod  and  standard,  so  that  all  the  members  of  the 
congregation  could  easily  watch  "  the  sands  that  ran 
i'  the  clock's  behalf."  By  the  side  of  the  desk  sat, 
on  the  Sabbath,  a  sexton,  clerk,  or  tithingman,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  turn  the  hour-glass  as  often  as  the 
sands  ran  out.  This  was  a  very  ostentatious  way  of 
reminding  the  clergyman  how  long  he  had  preached  ; 


78        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

but  if  it  were  a  hint  to  bring  the  discourse  to  an  end, 
it  was  never  heeded ;  for  contemporary  historical  reg- 
isters tell  of  most  painfully  long  sermons,  reaching 
up  through  long  sub-divisions  and  heads  to  "  twenty- 
seventhly  "  and  "  twenty-eighthly." 

At  the  planting  of  the  first  church  in  Woburn, 
Massachusetts,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Symmes  showed  his 
godliness  and  endurance  (and  proved  that  of  his 
parishioners  also)  by  preaching  between  four  and 
five  hours.  Sermons  which  occupied  two  or  three 
hours  were  customary  enough.  One  old  Scotch 
clergyman  in  Vermont,  in  the  early  years  of  this 
century,  bitterly  and  fiercely  resented  the  "  popish 
innovation  and  Sabbath  profanation"  of  a  Sunday- 
school  for  the  children,  which  some  daring  and  pro- 
gressive parishioners  proposed  to  hold  at  the  "  noon- 
ing." This  canny  Parson  Whiteinch  very  craftily 
and  somewhat  maliciously  prolonged  his  morning 
sermons  until  they  each  occupied  three  hours;  thus 
he  shortened  the  time  between  the  two  services  to 
about  half  an  hour,  and  victoriously  crowded  out  the 
Sunday-school  innovators,  who  had  barely  time  to  eat 
their  cold  lunch  and  care  for  their  waiting  horses,  ere 
it  was  time  for  the  afternoon  service  to  begin.  But 
one  man  cannot  stop  the  tide,  though  he  may  keep 
it  for  a  short  time  from  one  guarded  and  sheltered 
spot ;  and  the  rebellious  Vermont  congregation,  after 
two  or  three  years  of  tedious  three-hour  sermons, 
arose  in  a  body  and  crowded  out  the  purposely  prolix 
preacher,  and  established  the  wished-for  Sunday- 


THE  LENGTH  OF  THE  SERVICE.  79 

school.  The  vanquished  parson  thereafter  sullenly 
spent  the  noonings  in  the  horse-shed,  to  which  he 
ostentatiously  carried  the  big  church-Bible  in  order 
that  it  might  not  be  at  the  service  of  the  profaning 
teachers. 

An  irreverent  caricature  of  the  colonial  days  repre- 
sents a  phenomenally  long-preaching  clergyman  as 
turning  the  hour-glass  by  the  side  of  his  pulpit  and 
addressing  his  congregation  thus,  "  Come !  you  are 
all  good  fellows,  we  '11  take  another  glass  together ! " 
It  is  recorded  of  Rev.  Urian  Oakes  that  often  the 
hour-glass  was  turned  four  times  during  one  of  his 
sermons.  The  warning  legend,  "Be  Short,"  which 
Cotton  Mather  inscribed  over  his  study  door  was 
not  written  over  his  pulpit ;  for  he  wrote  in  his  diary 
that  at  his  own  ordination  he  prayed  for  an  hour  and  a 
quarter,  and  preached  for  an  hour  and  three  quarters. 
Added  to  the  other  ordination  exercises  these  long 
Mather  addresses  must  have  been  tiresome  enough. 
Nathaniel  Ward  deplored  at  that  time,  "  Wee  have  a 
strong  weakness  in  New  England  that  when  wee  are 
speaking,  wee  know  not  how  to  conclude :  wee  make 
many  ends  before  wee  make  an  end." 

Dr.  Lord  of  Norwich  always  made  a  prayer  which 
was  one  hour  long ;  and  an  early  Dutch  traveller  who 
visited  New  England  asserted  that  he  had  heard  there 
on  Fast  Day  a  prayer  which  was  two  hours  long. 
These  long  prayers  were  universal  and  most  highly 
esteemed,  —  a  "poor  gift  in  prayer"  being  a  most 
deplored  and  even  despised  clerical  short-coming. 


80        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Had  not  the  Puritans  left  the  Church  of  England  to 
escape  "  stinted  prayers  "  ?  Whitefield  prayed  openly 
for  Parson  Barrett  of  Hopkinton,  who  could  pray 
neither  freely,  nor  well,  that  "  God  would  open  this 
dumb  dog's  rnouth ; "  and  everywhere  in  the  Puri- 
tan Church,  precatory  eloquence  as  evinced  in  long 
prayers  was  felt  to  be  the  greatest  glory  of  the 
minister,  and  the  highest  tribute  to  God. 

In  nearly  all  the  churches  the  assembled  people  stood 
during  prayer-time  (since  kneeling  and  bowing  the 
head  savored  of  Romish  idolatry)  and  in  the  middle 
of  his  petition  the  minister  usually  made  a  long  pause 
in  order  that  any  who  were  infirm  or  ill  might  let 
down  their  slamming  pew-seats  and  sit  down ;  those 
who  were  merely  weary  stood  patiently  to  the  long 
and  painfully  deferred  end.  This  custom  of  standing 
during  prayer-time  prevailed  in  the  Congregational 
churches  in  New  England  until  quite  a  recent  date, 
and  is  not  yet  obsolete  in  isolated  communities  and 
in  solitary  cases.  I  have  seen  within  a  few  years,  in 
a  country  church,  a  feeble,  white-haired  old  deacon 
rise  tremblingly  at  the  preacher's  solemn  words  "  Let 
us  unite  in  prayer,"  and  stand  with  bowed  head 
throughout  the  long  prayer;  thus  pathetically  cling- 
ing to  the  reverent  custom  of  the  olden  time,  he 
rendered  tender  tribute  to  vanished  youth,  gave  equal 
tribute  to  eternal  hope  and  faith,  and  formed  a  beau- 
tiful emblem  of  patient  readiness  for  the  last  solemn 
summons. 

Sometimes  tedious  expounding  of  the  Scriptures 


THE  LENGTH  OF  THE  SERVICE.  81 

and  long  "  prophesying "  lengthened  out  the  already 
too  long  service.  Judge  Sewall  recorded  that  once 
when  he  addressed  or  expounded  at  the  Plymouth 
Church,  "  being  afraid  to  look  at  the  glass,  ignorantly 
and  unwittingly  I  stood  two  hours  and  a  half,"  which 
was  doing  pretty  well  for  a  layman. 

The  members  of  the  early  churches  did  not  dislike 
these  long  preachings  and  prophesyings ;  they  would 
have  regarded  a  short  sermon  as  irreligious,  and  lack- 
ing in  reverence,  and  besides,  would  have  felt  that 
they  had  not  received  in  it  their  full  due,  their  full 
money's  worth.  They  often  fell  asleep  and  were 
fiercely  awakened  by  the  tithingman,  and  often  they 
could  not  have  understood  the  verbose  and  grandiose 
language  of  the  preacher.  They  were  in  an  icy-cold 
atmosphere  in  winter,  and  in  glaring,  unshaded  heat 
in  summer,  and  upon  most  uncomfortable,  narrow,  un- 
cushioned  seats  at  all  seasons;  but  in  every  record 
and  journal  which  I  have  read,  throughout  which  min- 
isters and  laymen  recorded  all  the  annoyances  and 
opposition  which  the  preachers  encountered,  I  have 
never  seen  one  entry  of  any  complaint  or  ill-criticism 
of  too  long  praying  or  preaching.  Indeed,  when  Rev. 
Samuel  Torrey,  of  Weymouth,  Massachusetts,  prayed 
two  hours  without  stopping,  upon  a  public  Fast  Day 
in  1696,  it  is  recorded  that  his  audience  only  wished 
that  the  prayer  had  been  mucti  longer. 

When  we  consider  the  training  and  exercise  in 
prayer  that  the  New  England  parsons  had  in  their 
pulpits  on  Sundays,  in  their  own  homes  on  Saturday 


82        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

nights,  on  Lecture  Days  and  Fast  Days  and  Training 
Days,  and  indeed  upon  all  times  and  occasions,  can  we 
wonder  at  Parson  Boardman's  prowess  in  New  Mil- 
ford  in  1735  ?  He  visited  a  "  praying  "  Indian's  home 
wherein  lay  a  sick  papoose  over  whom  a  "  pow-wow  " 
was  being  held  by  a  medicine-man  at  the  request 
of  the  squaw-mother,  who  was  still  a  heathen.  The 
Christian  warrior  determined  to  fight  the  Indian 
witch-doctor  on  his  own  grounds,  and  while  the  med- 
icine-man was  screaming  and  yelling  and  dancing  in 
order  to  cast  the  devil  out  of  the  child,  the  parson 
began  to  pray  with  equal  vigor  and  power  of  lungs  to 
cast  out  the  devil  of  a  medicine-man.  As  the  prayer 
and  pow-wow  proceeded  the  neighboring  Indians  gath- 
ered around,  and  soon  became  seriously  alarmed  for 
the  success  of  their  prophet.  The  battle  raged  for 
three  hours,  when  the  pow-wow  ended,  and  the  dis- 
gusted and  exhausted  Indian  ran  out  of  the  wigwam 
and  jumped  into  the  Housatonic  River  to  cool  his 
heated  blood,  leaving  the  Puritan  minister  triumphant 
in  the  belief,  and  indeed  with  positive  proof,  that  he 
could  pray  down  any  man  or  devil. 

The  colonists  could  not  leave  the  meeting-house 
before  the  long  services  were  ended,  even  had  they 
wished,  for  the  tithingman  allowed  no  deserters.  In 
Salem,  in  1676,  it  was  "  ordered  by  ye  Selectmen  yt 
the  three  Constables  doe  attend  att  ye  three  greate 
doores  of  ye  meeting-house  every  Lordes  Day  att  ye 
end  of  ye  sermon,  both  forenoone  and  afternoone,  and 
to  keep  ye  doores  fast  and  suffer  none  to  goe  out 


THE  LENGTH  OF  THE  SERVICE.  83 

before  ye  whole  exercises  bee  ended."  Thus  Salem 
people  had  to  listen  to  no  end  of  praying  and  pro- 
phesying from  their  ministers  and  elders  for  they 
"  could  n't  get  out." 

As  the  years  passed  on,  the  church  attendants  be- 
came less  reverential  and  much  more  impatient  and 
fearless,  and  soon  after  the  Revolutionary  War  one 
man  in  Medford  made  a  bargain  with  his  minister  — 
Rev.  Dr.  Osgood  —  that  he  would  attend  regularly 
the  church  services  every  Sunday  morning,  provided 
he  could  always  leave  at  twelve  o'clock.  On  each 
Sabbath  thereafter,  as  the  obstinate  preacher  would* 
not  end  his  sermon  one  minute  sooner  than  his 
habitual  time,  which  was  long  after  twelve,  the 
equally  stubborn  limited-time  worshipper  arose  at 
noon,  as  he  had  stipulated,  and  stalked  noisily  out 
of  meeting. 

A  minister  about  to  preach  in  a  neighboring  parish 
was  told  of  a  custom  which  prevailed  there  of  per- 
sons who  lived  at  a  distance  rising  and  leaving  the 
house  ere  the  sermon  was  ended.  He  determined  to 
teach  them  a  lesson,  and  announced  that  he  would 
preach  the  first  part  of  his  sermon  to  the  sinners,  and 
the  latter  part  to  the  saints,  and  that  the  sinners 
would  of  course  all  leave  as  soon  as  their  portion  had 
been  delivered.  Every  soul  remained  until  the  end  of 
the  service. 

At  last,  when  other  means  of  entertainment  and 
recreation  than  church-going  became  common,  and 
other  forms  of  public  addresses  than  sermons  were 


84   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

frequently  given,  New  England  church-goers  became 
so  restless  and  rebellious  under  the  regime  of  hour- 
long  prayers  and  indefinitely  protracted  sermons  that 
the  long  services  were  gradually  condensed  and  cur- 
tailed, to  the  relief  of  both  preacher  and  hearers. 


r", 


VIII. 

THE  ICY  TEMPEKATUKE  OF  THE   MEETING- 
HOUSE. 

IN  colonial  days  in  New  England  the  long  and 
tedious  services  must  have  been  hard  to  endure  in  the 
unheated  churches  in  bitter  winter  weather,  so  bitter 
that,  as  Judge  Sewall  pathetically  recorded,  "The 
communion  bread  was  frozen  pretty  hard  and  rattled 
sadly  into  the  plates."  Sadly  down  through  the  cen- 
turies is  ringing  in  our  ears  the  gloomy  rattle  of  that 
frozen  sacramental  bread  on  the  Church  plate,  telling 
to  us  the  solemn  story  .of  the  austere  and  comfortless 
church-life  of  our  ancestors.  Would  that  the  sound 
could  bring  to  our  chilled  hearts  the  same  steadfast 
and  pure  Christian  faith  that  made  their  gloomy, 
freezing  services  warm  with  God's  loving  presence ! 

Again  Judge  Sewall  wrote  :  "  Extraordinary  Cold 
Storm  of  Wind  and  Snow.  Blows  much  more  as 
coming  home  at  Noon,  and  so  holds  on.  Bread  was 
frozen  at  Lord's  Table.  Though  't  was  so  cold  John 
Tuckerman  was  baptized.  At  six  o'clock  my  ink 
freezes,  so  that  I  can  hardly  write  by  a  good  fire  in 
my  Wives  chamber.  Yet  was  very  Comfortable  at 
Meeting."  In  the  penultimate  sentence  of  this  quota- 
tion may  be  found  the  clue  and  explanation  of  the 


86   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

seemingly  incredible  assertion,  in  the  last  sentence. 
The  reason  why  he  was  comfortable  in  church  was 
that  he  was  accustomed  to  sit  in  cold  rooms ;  even 
with  the  great  open-mouthed  and  open-chimneyed 
fireplaces  full  of  blazing  logs,  so  little  heat  entered 
the  rooms  of  colonial  dwelling-houses  that  one  could 
not  be  warm  unless  fairly  within  the  chimney-place ; 
and  thus,  even  while  sitting  by  the  fire,  his  ink  froze. 
Another  entry  of  Judge  SewalPs  tells  of  an  exceeding 
cold  day  when  there  was  "  Great  Coughing  "  in  meet- 
ing, and  yet  a  new-born  baby  was  brought  into  the  icy 
church  to  be  baptized.  Children  were  always  carried 
to  the  meeting-house  for  baptism  the  first  Sunday 
after  birth,  even  in  the  most  bitter  weather.  There 
are  no  entries  in  Judge  Sewall's  diary  which  exhibit 
him  in  so  lovable  and  gentle  a  light  as  the  records  of 
the  baptism  of  his  fourteen  children,  —  his  pride  when 
the  child  did  not  cry  out  or  shrink  from  the  water  in 
the  freezing  winter  weather,  thus  early  showing  true 
Puritan  fortitude ;  and  also  his  noble  resolves  and 
hopes  for  their  future.  On  this  especially  cold  day 
when  a  baby  was  baptized,  the  minister  prayed  for  a 
mitigation  of  the  weather,  and  on  the  same  day  in 
another  town  "Rev.  Mr.  Wigglesworth  preached  on 
the  text,  Who  can  stand  before  His  Cold  ?  Then  by 
his  own  and  people's  sickness  three  Sabbaths  passed 
without  public  Worship."  February  20  he  preached 
from  these  words :  "  He  sends  forth  his  word  and 
thaws  them."  And  the  very  next  day  a  thaw  set  in 
which  was  regarded  as  a  direct  answer  to  his  prayer 


THE  ICY  MEETING-HOUSE.  87 

and  sermon.     Sceptics  now-a-days  would  suggest  that 
he  chose  well  the  time  to  pray  for  milder  weather. 

Many  persons  now  living  can  remember  the  univer- 
sal and  noisy  turning  up  of  great-coat  collars,  the 
swinging  of  arms,  and  knocking  together  of  the  heavy- 
booted  feet  of  the  listeners  towards  the  end  of  a  long 
winter  sermon.  Dr.  Hopkins  used  to  say,  when  the 
noisy  tintamarre  began,  "  My  hearers,  have  a  little 
patience,  and  I  will  soon  close." 

Another  clergyman  was  irritated  beyond  endurance 
by  the  stamping,  clattering  feet,  a  supplosio  pedis  that 
he  regarded  as  an  irreverent  protest  and  complaint 
against  the  severity  of  the  weather,  rather  than  as  a 
hint  to  him  to  conclude  his  long  sermon.  He  sud- 
denly and  noisily  closed  his  sermon-book,  leaned  for- 
ward out  of  his  high  pulpit,  and  thundered  out  these 
Biblical  words  of  rebuke  at  his  freezing  congrega- 
tion, whose  startled  faces  stared  up  at  him  through 
dense  clouds  of  vapor.  "  Out  of  whose  womb  came 
the  ice?  And  the  hoary  frost  of  heaven,  who  hath 
gendered  it?  The  waters  are  hid  as  with  a  stone, 
and  the  face  of  the  deep  is  frozen.  Knowest  thou 
the  ordinance  of  heaven  ?  Canst  thou  set  the  do- 
minion thereof  on  the  earth  ?  Great  things  doth 
God  which  we  cannot  comprehend.  He  saith  to  the 
snow,  Be  thou  on  the  earth.  By  the  breath  of  God 
frost  is  given.  He  causeth  it  to  come,  whether  for 
correction,  or  for  his  land,  or  for  mercy.  Hearken 
unto  this.  Stand  still,  and  consider  the  wondrous 
works  of  God."  We  can  believe  that  he  roared  out 


88   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

the  words  "  stand  still,"  and  that  there  was  no  more 
noise  in  that  meeting-house  on  cold  Sundays  during 
the  remainder  of  that  winter. 

The  ministers  might  well  argue  that  no  one  suffered 
more  from  the  freezing  atmosphere  than  t'hey  did.  In 
many  records  I  find  that  they  were  forced  to  preach 
and  pray  with  their  hands  cased  in  woollen  or  fur 
mittens  or  heavy  knit  gloves ;  and  they  wore  long 
camlet  cloaks  in  the  pulpit  and  covered  their  heads 
with  skull  caps  —  as  did  Judge  Sewall  —  and  possi- 
bly wore,  as  he  did  also,  a  hood.  Many  a  wig-hating 
minister  must,  in  the  Arctic  meeting-house,  have 
longed  secretly  for  the  grateful  warmth  to  his  head 
and  neck  of  one  of  those  "  horrid  Bushes  of  Vanity," 
a  full-bottomed  flowing  wig. 

On  bitter  winter  days  Dr.  Stevens  of  Kittery  used 
to  send  a  servant  to  the  meeting-house  to  find  out 
how  many  of  his  flock  had  braved  the  piercing  blasts. 
If  only  seven  persons  were  present,  the  servant  asked 
them  to  return  with  him  to  the  parsonage  to  listen  to 
the  sermon ;  but  if  there  were  eight  members  in  the 
meeting-house  he  so  reported  to  the  Doctor,  who  then 
donned  his  long  worsted  cloak,  tied  it  around  his 
waist  with  a  great  handkerchief,  and  attired  thus, 
with  a  fur  cap  pulled  down  over  his  ears,  and  with 
heavy  mittens  on  his  hands,  ploughed  through  the 
deep  snow  to  the  church,  and  in  the  same  dress 
preached  his  long,  knotty  sermon  in  his  pulpit,  while 
fierce  wintry  blasts  rattled  the  windows  and  shook 
the  turret,  and  the  eight  godly,  shivering  souls  wished 


THE  ICY  MEETING-HOUSE.  89 

profoundly  that  one  of  their  number  had  "lain  at 
home  in  a  slothfull,  lazey,  prophane  way,"  and  thus 
permitted  the  seven  others  and  the  minister  to  have 
the  sermon  in  comfort  in  the  parsonage  kitchen  before 
the  great  blazing  logs  in  the  open  fireplace. 

Ah,  it  makes  one  shiver  even  to  think  of  those 
gloomy  churches,  growing  colder  and  more  congealed 
through  weeks  of  heavy  frost  and  fierce  northwesters 
until  they  bore  the  chill  of  death  itself.  One  can  but 
wonder  whether  that  fell  scourge  of  New  England, 
that  hereditary  curse  —  consumption  —  did  not  have  its 
first  germs  evolved  and  nourished  in  our  Puritan  ances- 
tors by  the  Spartan  custom  of  sitting  through  the  long 
winter  services  in  the  icy,  death-like  meeting-houses. 

Of  the  insufficient  clothing  of  the  church  attendants 
of  olden  times  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak  with  much 
detail.  The  good  men  with  their  heavy  top-boots  or 
jack-boots,  their  milled  or  frieze  stockings,  their  warm 
periwigs  surmounted  by  fur  caps  or  beaver  hats  or 
hoods ;  and  with  their  many-caped  great-coats  or  full 
round  cloaks  were  dressed  with  a  sufficient  degree  of 
comfort,  though  they  did  not  possess  the  warm  woollen 
and  silken  underclothing  which  now  make  a  man's 
winter  attire  so  comfortable.  They  carried  muffs 
too,  as  the  advertisements  of  the  times  show.  The 
"  Boston  News  Letter  "  of  1716  offers  a  reward  for  a 
man's  muff  lost  on  the  Sabbath  day  in  the  street.  In 
1725  Dr.  Prince  lost  his  black  bearskin  muff,  and  in 
1740  a  "  sableskin  man's  muff "  was  advertised  as 
having  been  lost. 


90        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

But  the  Puritan  goodwives  and  maidens  were 
dressed  in  a  meagre  and  scanty  fashion  that  when 
now  considered  seems  fairly  appalling.  As  soon  as 
the  colonies  grew  in  wealth  and  fashion,  thin  silk  or 
cotton  hose  were  frequently  worn  in  midwinter  by  the 
wives  and  daughters  of  well-to-do  colonists ;  and  cor- 
respondingly thin  cloth  or  kid  or  silk  slippers,  high- 
channelled  pumps,  or  low  shoes  with  paper  soles  and 
u cross-cut"  or  wooden  heels  were  the  holiday  and 
Sabbath-day  covering  for  the  feet.  In  wet  weather 
clogs  and  pattens  formed  an  extra  and  much  needed 
protection  when  the  fair  colonists  walked.  Linen 
underclothing  formed  the  first  superstructure  of  the 
feminine  costume  and  threw  its  penetrating  chill  to 
the  very  marrow  of  the  bones.  Often  in  mid-winter 
the  scant-skirted  French  calico  gowns  were  made  with 
short  elbow  sleeves  and  round,  low  necks,  and  the 
throat  and  shoulders  were  lightly  covered  with  thin 
lawn  neckerchiefs  or  dimity  tuckers.  The  flaunting 
hooped-petticoat  of  another  decade  was  worn  with  a 
silk  or  brocade  sacque.  A  thin  cloth  cape  or  mantle 
or  spencer,  lined  with  sarcenet  silk,  was  frequently  the 
only  covering  for  the  shoulders.  In  examining  the 
treasured  contents  of  old  wardrobes,  trunks,  and  high- 
chests,  and  in  reading  the  descriptions  of  women's 
winter  attire  worn  throughout  the  eighteenth  and 
half  through  the  nineteenth  century,  I  am  convinced 
that  the  only  portions  of  Puritan  female  anatomy  that 
were  clothed  with  anything  approaching  respectable 
regard  for  health  in  the  inclement  New  England  cli- 


THE  ICY  MEETING-HOUSE.  91 

mate  were  the  head  and  the  hands.  The  hands  of 
"  New  English  dames  "  were  carefully  protected  with 
embroidered  kid  or  leather  gloves  (for  the  early  New 
Englanders  were  great  glove  wearers)  or  with  warm 
knit  woollen  mittens,  though  mittens  for  women's 
wear  were  always  fingerless.  The  well-gloved  hands 
were  moreover  warmly  ensconced  in  enormous  stuffed 
muffs  of  bearskin  which  were  almost  as  large  as  a 
flour  barrel,  or  in  smaller  muffs  of  rabbit-skin  or  mink 
or  beaver.  The  goodwives'  heads  bore,  besides  the 
close  caps  so  universally  worn,  mufflers  and  veils  and 
hoods,  —  hoods  of  all  kinds  and  descriptions,  from 
the  hoods  of  serge  and  camlet  and  gauze  and  black 
silk  that  Mistress  Estabrook,  wife  of  the  Windham 
parson,  proudly  owned  and  wore,  from  the  prohibited 
"  silk  and  tiffany  hoods "  of  the  earliest  planters 
down  through  the  centuries'  inflorescence  of  "  hoods 
of  crimson  colored  persian,"  "wild  bore  and  hum- 
hum  long  hoods,"  "  pointed  velvet  capuchins,"  "  scar- 
let gipsys,"  "  pinnered  and  tasselled  hoods,"  "  shirred 
lustring  hoods,"  "  hoods  of  rich  pptuna,"  "  muskmelon 
hoods,"  to  the  warm  quilted  "  punkin  hoods  "  worn 
within  this  century  in  country  churches.  These 
"  punkin-hoods "  were  quilted  with  great  rolls  of 
woollen  wadding  and  drawn  tight  between  the  rolls 
with  strong  cords.  They  formed  a  deafening  and 
heating  head-covering  which  always  had  to  be  loos- 
ened and  thrust  back  when  the  wearer  was  within 
doors.  It  was  only  equalled  in  shapeless  clumsiness 
and  unique  ugliness  by  its  summer-sister  of  the  same 


92   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

date,  the  green  silk  calash, — that  funniest  and  quaint- 
est of  all  New  England  feminine  headgear,  —  a  great 
sunshade  that  could  not  be  called  a  bonnet,  always 
made  of  bright  green  silk  shirred  on  strong  lengths  of 
rattan  or  whalebone,  and  extendible  after  the  fashion 
of  a  chaise  top.  It  could  be  drawn  out  over  the  face 
by  a  little  green  ribbon  or  "  bridle  "  that  was  fastened 
to  the  extreme  front  at  the  top  ;  or  it  could  be  pushed 
in  a  close-gathered  mass  on  the  back  of  the  head. 
These  calashes  were  frequently  a  foot  and  a  half 
in  diameter,  and  thus  stood  well  up  from  the  head 
and  did  not  disarrange  the  hair  nor  crush  the  head- 
dress or  cap.  They  formed  a  perfect  and  easily- 
adjusted  shade  from  the  sun.  Masks,  too,  the  fair 
Puritans  wore  to  further  protect  their  heads  and 
faces,  —  masks  of  green  silk  or  black  velvet,  with 
silver  mouthpieces  to  place  within  the  lips  and  thus 
enable  the  wearer  to  keep  the  mask  firmly  in  place. 
Sometimes  two  little  strings  with  a  silver  bead  at  one 
end  were  fastened  to  the  mask,  and  served  as  mouth- 
pieces. With  a  string  and  bead  at  either  corner  of 
the  mouth  the  mask-wearer  could  talk  quite  freely 
while  still  retaining  her  face-covering  in  its  protecting 
position.  These  masks  were  never  worn  within  doors. 
In  the  list  of  goods  ordered  by  George  Washington 
from  Europe  for  his  fair  bride  Martha  were  several 
of  these  riding-masks,  and  the  kind  step-father  even 
ordered  a  supply  of  small  masks  for  "  Miss  Custis," 
his  little  step-daughter. 

In  bitter  winter  weather  women  carried  to  meeting 


THE  ICY  MEETING-HOUSE.  93 

little  foot-stoves,  —  metal  boxes  which  stood  on  legs 
and  were  filled  with  hot  coals  at  home,  and  a  second 
time  during  the  morning  from  the  hearthstone  of  a 
neighboring  farm-house  or  a  noon-house.  These  foot- 
warmers  helped  to  make  endurable  to  the  goodwives 
the  icy  chill  of  the  meeting-house ;  and  round  their 
mother's  foot-stove  the  shivering  little  children  sat  on 
their  low  crickets,  warming  their  half-frozen  fingers. 

Some  of  these  foot-stoves  were  really  pretentious 
church-furnishings.  I  have  seen  one  "  brassen  foot- 
stove  "  which  had  the  owner's  cipher  cut  out  of  the 
sheet  metal,  and  from  the  side  was  hung  a  wrought 
brass  chain.  By  this  chain,  a  century  ago,  the  shin- 
ing polished  brass  stove  was  carried  into  church  in 
the  hands  of  a  liveried  black  man,  who  held  it  osten- 
tatiously at  arms'  length,  that  neither  ash  nor  scorch 
might  touch  his  scarlet  velvet  breeches.  And  after 
he  had  tucked  it  under  my  lady's  tiny  feet  as  she  sat 
in  her  pew,  he  retired  to  his  freezing  loft  high  up 
among  the  beams,  —  the  "  Nigger  Pew,"  —  where,  I 
am  sorry  to  record,  he  more  than  once  solaced  and 
warmed  himself  with  a  bottle  of  "  kill-devil "  which 
he  had  smuggled  into  church,  until  he  fell  ignomin- 
iously  asleep  and  his  drunken  snores  so  disturbed  the 
minister  and  the  congregation,  that  two  tithingmen 
were  forced  to  climb  the  ladder-like  staircase  and  pull 
him  down  and  out  of  the  church  and  to  the  neighbor- 
ing tavern  to  sleep  off  the  effects  of  the  liquor.  For 
being  "  a  man  and  a  brother  "  and,  above  all,  in  spite 
of  his  petty  idiosyncrasies,  a  very  good  and  cher- 


94   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

ished  servant,  he  could  not  be  thrust  out  into  the 
snow  to  freeze  to  death. 

But  with  the  extreme  Puritan  contempt  of  comfort 
even  foot-stoves  were  not  always  allowed.  The  First 
Church  of  Roxbury,  after  having  one  church  edifice 
destroyed  by  fire  in  1747,  prohibited  the  use  of  foot- 
stoves  in  meeting,  and  the  Roxbury  matrons  sat  with 
frozen  toes  in  their  fine  new  meeting-house.  The  Old 
South  Church  of  Boston  was  not  so  rigid,  though  it 
felt  the  same  dread  of  fire  ;  for  we  find  this  entry  on 
the  records  of  the  church  under  the  date  of  January 
16,  1771 :  "  Whereas,  danger  is  apprehended  from 
the  [foot]  stoves  that  are  frequently  left  in  the  meet- 
ing-house after  the  publick  worship  is  over;  Voted, 
that  the  Saxton  make  diligent  search  on  the  Lord's 
Day  evening  and  in  the  evening  after  a  lecture,  to  see 
if  any  stoves  are  left  in  the  house,  and  that  if  he  find 
any  there  he  take  them  to  his  own  house ;  and  itt  is 
expected  that  the  owners  of  such  stoves  make  reason- 
able satisfaction  to  the  Saxton  for  his  trouble  before 
they  take  them  away." 

In  Hardwicke,  in  1792,  it  was  ordered  that  "  no 
stows  be  carried  into  our  new  meeting-house  with  fire 
in  them."  The  Hardwicke  women  may  have  found 
comfort  in  a  contrivance  which  is  thus  described  in 
rb/me  by  an  "old  inhabitant:"  — 

"  There  to  warm  their  feet 
Was  seen  an  article  now  obsolete, 
A  sort  of  basket  tub  of  braided  straw 
Or  husks,  in  which  is  placed  a  heated  stone, 
Which  does  half-frozen  limbs  superbly  thaw, 
And  warms  the  marrow  of  the  oldest  bone." 


THE  ICY  MEETING-HOUSE.  95 

In  some  of  the  early,  poorly  built  log  meeting-houses, 
fur  bags  made  of  coarse  skins,  such  as  wolf-skin,  were 
nailed  or  tied  to  the  edges  of  the  benches,  and  into 
these  bags  the  worshippers  thrust  their  feet  for  warmth. 
In  some  communities  it  was  the  custom  for  each  fam- 
ily to  bring  on  cold  days  its  "  dogg "  to  meeting ; 
where,  lying  at  or  on  his  master's  feet,  he  proved  a 
source  of  grateful  warmth.  These  animal  stoves  be- 
came such  an  abounding  nuisance,  however,  that  dog- 
whippers  had  to  be  appointed  to  serve  on  Sundays  to 
drive  out  the  dogs.  All  through  the  records  of  the 
early  churches  we  find  such  entries  as  this :  "  What- 
soever doggs  come  into  the  meeting-house  in  time  of 
public  worship,  their  owners  shall  each  pay  sixpence." 
Sixpence  seems  little,  but  the  thrifty  and  poor  Puri- 
tans would  rather  freeze  their  toes  than  pay  sixpence 
for  their  calorific  dogs. 

The  church  members  made  many  rules  and  regu- 
lations to  keep  the  cold  out  of  the  meeting-house 
during  service-time,  or  perhaps  we  should  say  to  keep 
the  wind  out.  Thus  in  Woodstock,  Connecticut,  in 
1725  it  was  ordered  that  the  "  several  doors  of  the 
meeting-house  be  taken  care  of  and  kept  shut  in  very 
cold  and  windy  seasons  according  to  the  lying  of  the 
wind  from  time  to  time;  and  that  people  in  such 
windy  weather  come  in  at  the  leeward  doors  only, 
and  take  care  that  they  are  easily  shut  both  to  pre- 
vent the  breaking  of  the  doors  and  the  making  of  a 
noise."  In  other  churches  it  was  ordered  that  "  no 
doors  be  opened  to  the  windward  and  only  one  door 
to  the  leeward"  during  winter  weather. 


96        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

The  first  church  of  Salem  built  a  "  cattied  chimney 
twelve  feet  long  "  in  its  meeting-house  in  1662,  but 
five  years  later  it  was  removed,  perhaps  through  the 
colonists'  dread  lest  the  building  be  destroyed  by  a 
conflagration  caused  by  the  combustible  nature  of  the 
materials  of  which  the  chimney  was  composed.  Felt, 
in  his  "Annals  of  Salem,"  asserts  that  the  First  Church 
of  Boston  was  the  first  New  England  congregation  to 
have  a  stove  for  heating  the  meeting-house  at  the 
time  of  public  worship ;  this  was  in  1773.  This 
statement  is  incorrect.  Mr.  Judd  says  the  Hadley 
church  had  an  iron  stove  in  their  meeting-house  as 
early  as  1734  —  the  Hadley  people  were  such  sybar- 
ites and  novelty-lovers  in  those  early  days  !  The  Old 
South  Church  of  Boston  followed  in  the  luxurious 
fashion  in  1783,  and  the  "  Evening  Post  "  of  January 
25, 1783,  contained  a  poem  of  which  these  four  lines 
show  the  criticising  and  deprecating  spirit :  — 

"  Extinct  the  sacred  fire  of  love, 

Our  zeal  grown  cold  and  dead, 
In  the  house  of  God  we  fix  a  stove 
To  warm  us  in  their  stead." 

Other  New  England  congregations  piously  froze 
during  service-time  well  into  this  century.  The 
Longmeadow  church,  early  in  the  field,  had  a  stove  in 
1810 ;  the  Salem  people  in  1815  ;  and  the  Medford 
meeting  in  1820.  The  church  in  Brirnfield  in  1819 
refused  to  pay  for  a  stove,  but  ordered  as  some  sac- 
rifice to  the  desire  for  comfort,  two  extra  doors  placed 
on  the  gallery-stairs  to  keep  out  draughts  ;  but  when 
in  that  town,  a  few  years  later,  a  subscription  was 


THE  ICY  MEETING-HOUSE.  97 

made  to  buy  a  church  stove,  one  old  member  refused 
to  contribute,  saying  "good  preaching  kept  him  hot 
enough  without  stoves." 

As  all  the  church  edifices  were  built  without  any 
thought  of  the  possibility  of  such  comfortable  furni- 
ture, they  had  to  be  adapted  as  best  they  might  to  the 
ungainly  and  unsightly  great  stoves  which  were  usually 
placed  in  the  central  aisle  of  the  building.  From 
these  cast-iron  monsters,  there  extended  to  the  near- 
est windows  and  projected  through  them,  hideous 
stove-pipes  that  too  often  spread,  from  every  leaky 
and  ill-fastened  joint,  smoke  and  sooty  vapors,  and 
sometimes  pyroligneous  drippings  on  the  congrega- 
tion. Often  tin  pails  to  catch  the  drippings  were 
hung  under  the  stove-pipes,  forming  a  further  chaste 
and  elegant  church-decoration.  Many  serious  objec- 
tions were  made  to  the  stoves  besides  the  aBsthetic 
ones.  It  was  alleged  that  they  would  be  the  means  of 
starting  many  destructive  conflagrations  ;  that  they 
caused  severe  headaches  in  the  church  attendants ;  and 
worst  of  all,  that  the  heat  warped  the  ladies'  tortoise- 
shell  back-combs. 

The  church  reformers  contended,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  no  one  could  properly  receive  spiritual  comfort 
while  enduring  such  decided  bodily  discomfort.  They 
hoped  that  with  increased  physical  warmth,  fervor 
in  religion  would  be  equally  augmented,  —  that,  as 
Cowper  wrote,  — 

41  The  churches  warmed,  they  would  no  longer  hold 
Such  frozen  figures,  stiff  as  they  are  cold." 
7 


98        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW-ENGLAND. 

Many  were  the  quarrels  and  discussions  that  arose 
in  New  England  communities  over  the  purchase  and 
use  of  stoves,  and  many  were  the  meetings  held  and 
votes  taken  upon  the  important  subject. 

"  Peter  Parley  "  —  Mr.  Samuel  Goodrich  —  gave,  in 
his  "  Recollections,"  a  very  amusing  account  of  the 
sufferings  endured  by  the  wife  of  an  anti-stove  deacon. 
She  came  to  church  with  a  look  of  perfect  resignation 
on  the  Sabbath  of  the  stove's  introduction,  and  swept 
past  the  unwelcome  intruder  with  averted  head,  and 
into  her  pew.  She  sat  there  through  the  service,  grow- 
ing paler  with  the  unaccustomed  heat,  until  the  min- 
ister's words  about  "  heaping  coals  of  fire  "  brought 
too  keen  a  sense  of  the  overwhelming  and  unhealth- 
ful  stove-heat  to  her  mind,  and  she  fainted.  She  was 
carried  out  of  church,  and  upon  recovering  said  lan- 
guidly that  it  "  was  the  heat  from  the  stove."  A 
most  complete  and  sudden  resuscitation  was  effected, 
however,  when  she  was  informed  of  the  fact  that 
no  fire  had  as  yet  been  lighted  in  the  new  church- 
furnishing. 

Similar  chronicles  exist  about  other  New  England 
churches,  and  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  each 
other.  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  in  an  address  de- 
livered in  New  York  on  December  20,  1853,  the 
anniversary  of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  referred 
to  the  opposition  made  to  the  introduction  of  stoves 
into  the  old  meeting-house  in  Litchfield,  Connecticut, 
during  the  ministry  of  his  father,  and  gave  an  amus- 
ing account  of  the  results  of  the  introgression.  This 


THE  ICY  MEETING-HOUSE.  99 

allusion  called  up  many  reminiscences  of  anti-stove 
wars,  and  a  writer  in  the  "  New  York  Enquirer " 
told  the  same  story  of  the  fainting  woman  in  Litch- 
field  meeting,  who  began  to  fan  herself  and  at  length 
swooned,  saying  when  she  recovered  "  that  the  heat 
of  the  horrid  stove  had  caused  her  to  faint."  A  cor- 
respondent of  the  "  Cleveland  Herald  "  confirmed  the 
fact  that  the  fainting  episode  occurred  in  the  Litch- 
field  meeting-house.  The  editor  of  the  "  Hartford 
Daily  Courant"  thus  added  his  testimony : — 

"  Violent  opposition  had  been  made  to  the  intr 
tion  of  a  stove  in  the  old  meeting-house,  and  an 
made  in  vain  to  induce  the  society  to  purchase  one.  The 
writer  was  one  of  seven  young  men  who  finally  purchased 
a  stove  and  requested  permission  to  put  it  up  in  the 
meeting-house  on  trial.  After  much  difficulty  the  com- 
mittee consented.  It  was  all  arranged  on  Saturday  after- 
noon, and  on  Sunday  we  took  our  seats  in  the  Bass, 
rather  earlier  than  usual,  to  see  the  fun.  It  was  a  warm 
November  Sunday,  in  which  the  sun  shone  cheerfully  and 
warmly  on  the  old  south  steps  and  into  the  naked  win- 
dows. The  stove  stood  in  the  middle  aisle,  rather  in 
front  of  the  Tenor  Gallery.  People  came  in  and  stared. 
Good  old  Deacon  Trowbridge,  one  of  the  most  simple- 
hearted  and  worthy  men  of  that  generation,  had,  as  Mr. 
Beecher  says,  been  induced  to  give  up  his  opposition. 
He  shook  his  head,  however,  as  he  felt  the  heat  reflected 
from  it,  and  gathered  up  the  skirts  of  his  great  coat  as 
he  passed  up  the  broad  aisle  to  the  deacon's  seat.  Old 
Uncle  Noah  Stone,  a  wealthy  farmer  of  the  West  End, 
who  sat  near,  scowled  and  muttered  at  the  effects  of  the 


100        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

heat,  but  waited  until  noon  to  utter  his  maledictions  over 
his  nut-cakes  and  cheese  at  the  intermission.  There  had 
in  fact  been  no  fire  in  the  stove,  the  day  being  too  warm. 
We  were  too  much  upon  the  broad  grin  to  be  very  de- 
votional, and  smiled  rather  loudly  at  the  funny  things 
we  saw.  But  when  the  editor  of  the  village  paper, 
Mr.  Bunce,  came  in  (who  was  a  believer  in  stoves  in 
churches)  and  with  a  most  satisfactory  air  warmed  his 
hands  by  the  stove,  keeping  the  skirts  of  his  great-coat 
carefully  between  his  knees,  we  could  stand  it  no  longer 
but  dropped  invisible  behind  the  breastwork.  But  the 
climax  of  the  whole  was  (as  the  Cleveland  man  says) 
when  Mrs.  Peck  went  out  in  the  middle  of  the  service. 
It  was,  however,  the  means  of  reconciling  the  whole 
society ;  for  after  that  first  day  we  heard  no  more  oppo- 
sition to  the  warm  stove  in  the  meeting-house. 

With  all  this  corroborative  evidence  I  think  it  is 
fully  proved  that  the  event  really  happened  in  Litch- 
field,  and  that  the  honor  was  stolen  for  other  towns 
by  unveracious  chroniclers ;  otherwise  we  must  be- 
lieve in  an  amazing  unanimity  of  church-joking  and 
sham-fainting  all  over  New  England. 

The  very  nature,  the  stern,  pleasure-hating  and 
trial-glorying  Puritan  nature,  which  made  our  fore- 
fathers leave  their  English  homes  to  come,  for  the 
love  of  God  and  the  freedom  of  conscience,  to  these 
wild,  barren,  and  unwelcoming  shores,  made  them  also 
endure  with  fortitude  and  almost  with  satisfaction  all 
personal  discomforts,  and  caused  them,  to  cling  with 
persistent  firmness  to  such  outward  symbols  of  austere 


THE  ICY  MEETBTO-HOUSE.  101 

contempt  of  luxury,  and  such  narrow-minded  signs  of 
love  of  simplicity  as  the  lack  of  comfortable  warmth 
during  the  time  of  public  worship.  The  religion 
which  they  had  endured  such  bitter  hardships  to  es- 
tablish, did  not,  in  their  minds,  need  any  shielding 
and  coddling  to  keep  it  alive,  but  thrived  far  better 
on  Spartan  severity  and  simplicity ;  hence,  it  took 
two  centuries  of  gradual  and  most  tardy  softening 
and  modifying  of  character  to  pre^tfre  the1-  Purit^ri: 
mind  for  so  advanced  a  reform  and  luxury  as  proper 
warmth  in  the  meeting-houses  inVi 


IX. 
THE  NOON-HOUSE. 

THERE  might  have  been  seen  a  hundred  years  ago, 
bv.  the 'sldp,,  ^f- many  an  old  meeting-house  in  New 
Englandt  a  long,  Ipw,  mean,  stable-like  building,  with 
a  ^Quglr  otono ,  c[iimney  at  one  end.  This  was  the 
"  noon-house,"  or  "  Sabba-day  house,"  or  "  horse- 
hows,"  as  it  was  variously  called.  It  was  a  place  of 
refuge  in  the  winter  time,  at  the  noon  interval  between 
the  two  services,  for  the  half-frozen  members  of  the 
pious  congregation,  who  found  there  the  grateful 
warmth  which  the  house  of  God  denied.  They  built 
in  the  rude  stone  fireplace  a  great  fire  of  logs,  and 
in  front  of  the  blazing  wood  ate  their  noon-day  meal 
of  cold  pie,  of  doughnuts,  of  pork  and  peas,  or  of 
brown  bread  with  cheese,  which  they  had  brought 
safely  packed  in  their  capacious  saddlebags.  The 
dining-place  smelt  to  heaven  of  horses,  for  often  at 
the  further  end  of  the  noon-house  were  stabled  the 
patient  steeds  that,  doubly  burdened,  had  borne  the 
Puritans  and  tbeir  wives  to  meeting ;  but  this  stable- 
odor  did  not  hinder  appetite,  nor  did  the  warm  equine 
breaths  that  helped  to  temper  the  atmosphere  of  the 
noon-house  offend  the  senses  of  the  sturdy  Puritans. 
From  the  blazing  fire  in  this  "  life-saving  station  "  the 


THE  NOON-HOUSE.  103 

women  replenished  their  little  foot-stoves  with  fresh, 
hot  coals,  and  thus  helped  to  make  endurable  the  icy 
rigor  of  the  long  afternoon  service. 

If  the  winter  Sabbath  Day  were  specially  severe,  a 
"  hired-man,"  or  one  of  the  grown  sons  of  the  family, 
was  sent  at  an  early  hour  to  the  noon-house  in  advance 
of  the  other  church-attendants,  and  he  started  in  the 
rough  fireplace  a  fire  for  their  welcome  after  their 
long,  cold,  morning  ride ;  and  before  its  cheerful 
blaze  they  thoroughly  warmed  themselves  before  en- 
tering the  icy  meeting-house.  The  embers  were  care- 
fully covered  over  and  left  to  start  a  second  blaze  at 
the  nooning,  covered  again  during  the  afternoon  ser- 
vice, and  kindled  up  still  a  third  time  to  warm  the 
chilled  worshippers  ere  they  started  for  their  cold 
ride  home  in  the  winter  twilight.  And  when  the 
horses  were  saddled,  or  were  harnessed  and  hitched 
into  the  great  box-sleighs  or  "  pungs,"  and  when  the 
good  Puritans  were  well  wrapped  up,  the  dying  coals 
were  raked  out  for  safety  and  the  noon-house  was  left 
as  quiet  and  as  cold  as  the  deserted  meeting-house 
until  the  following  Sabbath  or  Lecture  day. 

If  the  meeting-house  chanced  to  stand  in  the  middle 
of  the  town  (as  was  the  universal  custom  in  the 
earliest  colonial  days)  of  course  a  noon-house  would 
be  rarely  built,  for  it  would  plainly  not  be  needed. 
Nor  was  a  "  Sabba-day  house  "  always  seen  in  more 
lonely  situations,  if  the  sanctuary  were  placed  near 
the  substantial  farm-house  of  a  hospitable  farmer; 
for  to  that  friendly  shelter  the  whole  congregation 


104    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

would  at  noon-time  repair  and  absorb  to  the  fullest 
degree  the  welcome  cider  and  warmth. 

In  Lexington  for  many  years  after  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  the  winter  church-goers  who  came  from 
any  distance  spent  the  nooning  at  the  Dudley  Tavern, 
where  a  roaring  fire  was  built  in  the  inn-parlor,  and 
there  the  women  and  children  ate  their  midday  lunch. 
The  men  gathered  in  the  bar-room  and  drank  flip, 
and  ate  the  tavern  gingerbread  and  cheese,  and 
talked  over  the  horrors  and  glories  of  the  war.  In 
Haverhill,  Derby,  and  many  other  towns,  the  school- 
house,  which  was  built  on  the  village  green  beside 
the  church,  was  used  for  a  noon-house  by  the  church 
members,  though  not  by  their  horses.  The  house  of 
learning  was  never  chimneyless  and  fireless,  as  was 
the  house  of  God. 

As  churches  and  towns  multiplied,  a  meeting-house 
was  often  built  to  accommodate  two  little  settlements 
or  villages  (and  thus  was  convenient  for  neither),  and 
was  frequently  placed  in  an  isolated  or  inconvenient 
place,  the  top  of  a  high  hill  being  perhaps  the  most 
inconvenient  and  the  most  favored  site.  Thus  a 
noon-house  became  an  absolute  necessity  to  Puritan 
health  and  existence,  and  often  two  or  three  were 
built  near  one  meeting-house  ;  while  in  some  towns, 
as  in  Bristol,  a  whole  row  of  disfiguring  little  "  Sabba- 
day  houses  "  stood  on  the  meeting-house  green,  and 
in  them  the  farmers  (as  they  quaintly  expressed  in 
their  petitions  for  permission  to  erect  the  buildings) 
"  kept  their  duds  and  horses." 


THE  NOON-HOUSE.  105 

In  Derby,  after  several  petitions  had  been  granted 
to  build  noon-houses,  it  was  found  necessary,  in  1764, 
to  place  some  restrictions  as  to  the  location  of  the 
buildings,  which  had  hitherto  evidently  been  placed 
with  the  characteristically  Puritanical  indifference  to 
general  convenience  or  appearance.  While  the  town 
still  permitted  the  little  log-huts  to  be  erected,  and 
though  they  could  be  placed  on  either  side  of  the 
highway,  it  was  ordered  that  the  builders  must  not 
so  locate  them  as  to  "  incommode  any  highways." 
As  early  as  1690  the  thoughtful  Stonington  people 
built  a  house  "  14  foot  square  and  seven  foot  posts  " 
with  a  chimney  at  one  side,  for  the  express  purpose  of 
having  a  place  where  their  minister,  Rev.  Mr.  Noyes, 
could  thaw  out  between  services.  The  New  Canaan 
Church  built  on  the  green  beside  their  meeting-house 
a  fine  "  Society  House,"  twenty-one  feet  long  and  six- 
teen feet  wide,  with  a  big  chimney  and  fireplace.  The 
horses  were  plainly  "  not  in  society  "  in  New  Canaan, 
for  they  were  excluded  from  the  occupancy  and  privi- 
leges of  the  Society  House. 

"James  June  &  all  that  lives  at  Larences"  were 
allowed  to  build  a  "  Sabbath-House "  on  the  green 
near  the  New  Britain  meeting-house  "  as  a  Commodate 
for  their  conveniency  of  comeing  to  meeting  on  the 
Sabbath ;"  at  the  same  time  James  Slason  of  the  same 
village  was  given  permission  to  "  set  yp  a  house  for  ye 
advantage  of  his  having  a  place  to  go  to  "  on  the  Sab- 
bath. Frequently  the  petitions  "  to  build  a  Sabbath 
Day  House "  or  a  "  Housel  for  Shelter  for  Horss " 


106  THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

were  made  in  company  by  several  farmers  for  their 
joint  use  and  comfort,  as  shown  by  entries  in  the  town 
and  church  records  of  Nor  walk,  New  Milford,  Durham, 
and  Hartford. 

Noon-houses  were  much  more  frequent  in  Connec- 
ticut than  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  several  small 
towns  in  the  former  State  they  were  used  weekly 
between  Sunday  services  until  within  the  memory 
of  persons  now  living;  and  some  of  the  buildings 
still  exist,  though  changed  into  granaries  or  stables. 
There  was  one  also  in  use  for  many  years  and  until 
recent  years  in  Topsfield,  in  Massachusetts.  We 
chanced  upon  one  still  standing  on  a  lonely  Narra- 
gansett  road.  A  little  enclosed  burial-place,  with 
moss-grown  and  weather-smoothed  head-stones  and 
neglected  graves,  was  by  the  side  of  a  filled-in  cellar, 
upon  which  a  church  evidently  had  once  stood.  At  a 
short  distance  from  the  church-sito  was  a  long,  low, 
gray,  weather-beaten  wooden  building,  with  a  coarse 
stone-and-mortar  chimney  at  one  end,  and  a  great 
door  at  the  other.  Two  small  windows,  destitute 
of  glass,  permitted  us  to  peer  into  the  interior  of  this 
dilapidated  old  structure,  and  we  saw  within,  a  floor 
of  beaten  earth,  a  rough  stone  fireplace,  and  a  few 
rude  horse-stalls.  We  felt  sure  that  this  tumble-down 
building  had  been  neither  a  dwelling-house  nor  a 
stable,  but  a  noon- house ;  and  the  occupants  of  a 
neighboring  farm-house  confirmed  our  decision.  Too 
worthless  to  destroy,  too  out  of  the  way  to  be  of  any 
use  to  any  person,  that  old  noon-house,  through 


THE  NOON-HOUSE,  107 

neglect  and  isolation,  has  remained  standing  until 
to-day. 

It  was  not  until  the  use  of  chaises  and  wagons 
became  universal,  and  the  new  means  of  conveyance 
crowded  out  the  old-fashioned  saddle  and  pillion,  and 
the  trotting  horse  superseded  the  once  fashionable  but 
quickly  despised  pacer,  that  the  great  stretches  of 
horse-sheds  were  built  which  now  surround  and  dis- 
figure all  our  country  churches.  These  sheds  protect, 
of  course,  both  horse  and  carriage  from  wind  and  rain. 
Few  churches  had  horse-sheds  until  after  the  War  of 
the  Revolution,  and  some  not  until  after  the  War  of 
1812.  In  1796  the  Longmeadow  Church  had  "  liberty 
to  erect  a  Horse  House  in  the  Meeting  House  Lane." 
This  horse  house  was  a  horse-shed. 

The  "  wretched  boys  "  were  not  permitted  even  in 
these  noon-houses  to  talk,  much  less  to  "  sporte  and 
playe."  In  some  parishes  it  was  ordered  by  the  min- 
ister and  the  deacons  that  the  Bible  should  be  read 
and  expounded  to  them,  or  a  sermon  be  read  to  keep 
them  quiet  during  the  nooning.  Occasionally  some 
old  patriarch  would  explain  to  them  the  notes  that  he 
had  taken  during  the  morning  sermon.  More  unbear- 
able still,  the  boys  were  sometimes  ordered  to  explain 
the  notes  which  they  had  taken  themselves.  I  would 
I  had  heard  some  of  those  explanations !  Thus  they 
literally,  as  was  written  in  1774,  throve  on  the  "  Good 
Fare  of  Brown  Bread  and  the  Gospell." 

In  Andover,  Judge  Phillips  left  in  his  will  a  silver 
flagon  to  the  church  as  an  expression  of  interest  and 


108  THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

hope  that  the  "  laudable  practice  of  reading  between 
services  may  be  continued  so  long  as  even  a  small 
number  shall  be  disposed  to  attend  the  exercise." 
Mr.  Abbott  left  another  silver  flagon  to  the  And- 
over  Church  to  encourage  reading  between  services ; 
though  how  this  piece  of  plate  encouraged  personally, 
since  neither  the  deacons  nor  the  boys  got  it  as  a 
prize,  cannot  be  precisely  understood.  The  nooii- 
house  in  Andover  was  a  large  building  with  a  great 
chimney  and  open  fireplace  at  either  end.  It  has 
always  seemed  to  me  a  piece  of  gratuitous  posthumous 
cruelty  in  Judge  Phillips  and  Mr.  Abbott  to  try  to 
cheat  those  Andover  boys  of  their  noon-time  rest  and 
relaxation,  and  to  expect  them,  wriggling  and  twisting 
with  repressed  vitality,  to  listen  to  a  long  extra  ser- 
mon, read  perhaps  by  some  unskilled  reader,  or  ex- 
plained by  some  incapable  expounder.  The  Sabbath- 
school  did  not  then  exist,  and  was  not  in  general 
favor  until  the  noon-houses  had  begun  to  disappear. 
The  Reverend  Jedediah  Morse,  father  of  the  inventor 
of  the  electric  telegraph,  was  almost  the  first  New 
England  clergyman  who  approved  of  Sabbath-schools 
and  established  them  in  his  parish.  In  Salem  they 
were  opened  in  1808,  and  the  scholars  came  at  half- 
past  six  on  Sunday  mornings.  Fancy  the  chill  and 
gloom  of  the  unheated,  ill-lighted  churches  at  that 
hour  on  winter  mornings .  The  "  Salem  Gazette " 
openly  characterized  Sunday-schools,  when  first  sug- 
gested, as  profanations  of  the  Sabbath,  and  for 
years  they  were  not  allowed  in  many  Congregational 


THE  NOON-HOUSE.  109 

churches.  When  the  Sabbath-schools  were  univer- 
sally established,  and  thus  the  attention  and  interest 
of  the  children  was  gained  during  the  noon  interval 
(the  time  the  schools  were  usually  held  in  country 
churches),  and  when  each  family  sat  in  its  own  pew, 
and  thus  the  boys  were  separated,  and  each  under  his 
parents'  guardianship,  the  "  wretched  boys "  of  the 
Puritan  Sabbath  disappeared,  and  well-behaved,  quiet, 
orderly  boys  were  seen  instead  in  the  New  England 
churches. 

This  fashion  of  sermon-reading  at  the  nooning  hap- 
pily did  not  obtain  in  all  parts  of  New  England.  In 
many  villages  the  meetings  in  the  society  noon-houses 
were  to  the  townspeople  what  a  Sunday  newspaper 
is  to  Sunday  readers  now-a-days,  an  advertisement 
and  exposition  of  all  the  news  of  the  past  week,  and 
also  a  suggestion  of  events  to  come.  At  noon  they 
discussed  and  wondered  at  the  announcements  and 
publishings  which  were  tacked  on  the  door  of  the 
meeting-house  or  the  notices  that  had  been  read  from 
the  pulpit.  The  men  talked  in  loud  voices  of  the 
points  of  the  sermon,  of  the  doctrines  of  predestina- 
tion, pedobaptism  and  antipedobaptism,  of  original 
sin,  and  that  most  fascinating  mystery,  the  unpardon- 
able sin,  and  in  lower  voices  of  wolf  and  bear  killing, 
of  the  town-meeting,  the  taxes,  the  crops  and  cattle  ; 
and  they  examined  with  keen  interest  one  another's 
horses,  and  many  a  sly  bargain  in  horse-flesh  or  ex- 
change of  cows  and  pigs  was  suggested,  bargained 
over,  and  clinched  in  the  "  Sabba'-day  house."  Many 


110        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

a  piece  of  village  electioneering  was  also  discussed  and 
"  worked  "  between  the  services.  The  shivering  wo- 
men crowded  around  the  blazing  and  welcome  fire, 
and  seated  themselves  on  rude  benches  and  log  seats 
while  they  ate  and  exchanged  doughnuts,  slices  of 
rusk,  or  pieces  of  "  pumpkin  and  Indian  mixt "  pie, 
and  also  gave  to  each  other  receipts  therefor ;  and 
they  discoursed  in  low  voices  of  their  spinning  and 
weaving,  of  their  candle-dipping  or  candle-running,  of 
their  success  or  failure  in  that  yearly  trial  of  patience 
and  skill  —  their  soap-making,  of  their  patterns  in 
quilt-piecing,  and  sometimes  they  slyly  exchanged 
quilt-patterns.  A  sentence  in  an  old  letter  reads 
thus :  "  Anne  Bradford  gave  to  me  last  Sabbath  in 
the  Noon  House  a  peecing  of  the  Blazing  Star;  tis 
much  Finer  than  the  Irish  Chain  or  the  Twin  Sisters. 
I  want  yelloe  peeces  for  the  first  joins,  small  peeces 
will  do.  I  will  send  some  of  my  lilac  flowered  print 
for  some  peeces  of  Cicelys  yelloe  India  bed  valiants, 
new  peeces  not  washed  peeces."  They  gave  one 
another  medical  advice  and  prescriptions  of  "  roots 
and  yarbs"  for  their  "rheumatiz,"  "neuralgy,"  and 
"  tissick ; "  and  some  took  snuff  together,  while  an 
ancient  dame  smoked  a  quiet  pipe.  And  perhaps 
(since  they  were  women  as  well  as  Puritans)  they 
glanced  with  envy,  admiration,  or  disapproval,  or  at 
any  rate  with  close  scrutiny,  at  one  another's  gowns 
and  bonnets  and  cloaks,  which  the  high-walled  pews 
within  the  meeting-house  had  carefully  concealed 
from  any  inquisitive,  neighborly  view. 


THE  NOON-HOUSE.  HI 

The  wood  for  these  beneficent  noon-house  fires  was 
given  by  the  farmers  of  the  congregation,  a  load  by 
each  well-to-do  land-owner,  if  it  were  a  "  society-house," 
and  occasionally  an  apple-growing  farmer  gave  a  barrel 
of  "  cyder "  to  supply  internal  instead  of  external 
warmth.  Cider  sold  in  1782  for  six  shillings  "  Old 
Tenor  "  a  barrel,  so  it  was  worth  about  the  same  as 
the  wood  both  in  money  value  and  calorific  qualities. 
A  hundred  years  previously  —  in  1679  —  cider  was 
worth  ten  shillings  a  barrel.  In  1650,  when  first 
made  in  America,  it  was  a  costly  luxury,  selling  for 
£4  4s.  a  barrel.  That  this  thawed-out  Sunday  barrel 
of  cider  would  prove  invariably  a  source  of  much 
refreshment,  inspiration,  solace,  tongue-loosing,  and 
blood-warming  to  the  chilled  and  shivering  deacons, 
elders,  and  farmers  who  gathered  in  the  noon-house, 
any  one  who  has  imbibed  that  all-potent  and  intoxi- 
cating beverage,  oft-frozen  "  hard  "  cider,  can  fer- 
vently testify. 

Sometimes  a  very  opulent  farmer  having  built  a 
noon-house  for  his  own  and  his  family's  exclusive  use, 
would  keep  in  it  as  part  of  his  "  duds  "  a  few  simple 
cooking  utensils  in  which  his  wife  or  daughters  would 
re-heat  or  partially  cook  his  noon-day  Sabbath  meal, 
and  mix  for  him  a  hot  toddy  or  punch,  or  a  mug  of 
that  "  most  insinuating  drink  "  —  flip,  Flip  was  made 
of  home-brewed  beer,  sugar,  and  a  liberal  dash  of 
Jamaica  rum,  and  was  mixed  with  a  "logger-head" — 
a  great  iron  "  stirring-stick  "  which  was  heated  in  the 
fire  until  red  hot  and  then  thrust  into  the  liquid. 


112       THE  SABBATH  IN  PUKITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

This  seething  iron  made  the  flip  boil  and  bubble  and 
imparted  to  it  a  burnt,  bitter  taste  which  was  its  most 
attractive  attribute.  I  doubt  not  that  many  a  "  log- 
gerhead "  was  kept  in  New  England  noon-houses  and 
left  heating  and  gathering  insinuating  goodness  in  the 
glowing  coals,  while  the  pious  owner  sat  freezing  in 
the  meeting-house,  also  gathering  goodness,  but  inter- 
nally keeping  warm  at  the  thought  of  the  bitter 
nectar  he  should  speedily  brew  and  gladly  imbibe  at 
the  close  of  the  long  service. 

The  comfort  of  a  hot  midday  dinner  on  the  Sabbath 
was  not  regarded  with  much  favor,  though  perhaps 
with  secret  envy,  by  the  neighbors  of  the  luxury-loving 
farmer,  who  saw  in  it  too  close  an  approach  to  "  pro- 
fanation of  the  Sabbath."  The  heating  and  boiling 
of  the  flip  with  the  red  hot  "  loggerhead  "  hardly  came 
under  the  head  of  "unnecessary  Sabbath  cooking" 
even  in  the  minds  of  the  most  straight-laced  descend- 
ants of  the  Puritans. 

When  stoves  were  placed  and  used  in  the  New 
England  meeting-houses,  the  noon-day  lunches  were 
eaten  within  the  pews  inside  the  sanctuary,  and  the 
noon-houses,  no  longer  being  needed,  followed  the  law 
of  cause  and  effect,  and  like  many  other  institutions 
of  the  olden  times  quickly  disappeared. 


X. 

THE  DEACON'S   OFFICE. 

THE  deacons  in  the  early  New  England  churches 
had,  besides  their  regular  duties  on  the  Lord's  Day, 
and  their  special  duties  on  communion  Sabbaths,  the 
charge  of  prudential  concerns,  and  of  providing  for 
the  poor  of  the  church.  They  also  "  dispensed  the 
word"  on  Sabbaths  to  the  congregation  during  the 
absence  of  the  ordained  minister.  Judge  Sewall 
thus  describes  in  his  diary  under  the  date  of  Novem- 
ber, 1685,  the  method  at  that  time  of  appointing  or 
ordaining  a  deacon  :  — 

"In  afternoon  Mr.  Willard  ordained  our  Brother  The- 
ophilus  Frary  to  the  office  of  a  Deacon.  Declared  his 
acceptance  January  llth  first  and  now  again.  Pro- 
pounded him  to  the  congregation  at  Noon.  Then  in  even 
propounded  him  if  any  of  the  church  or  other  had  to  ob- 
ject they  might  speak.  Then  took  the  Church's  Vote, 
then  call'd  him  up  to  the  Pulpit,  laid  his  Hand  on 's  head, 
and  said  I  ordain  Thee,  etc.,  etc.,  gave  him  his  charge, 
then  Prayed  &  sung  2nd  Part  of  84th  Psalm." 

The  deacons  always  sat  near  the  pulpit  in  a  pew, 
which  was  generally  raised  a  foot  or  two  above  the 
level  of  the  meeting-house  floor,  and  which  contained, 


114   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

usually,  several  high-backed  chairs  and  a  table  or  a 
broad  swinging-shelf  for  use  at  the  communion  ser- 
vice. These  venerable  men  were  a  group  of  awe- 
inspiring  figures,  who,  next  to  the  parson,  received 
the  respect  of  the  community.  In  Bristol,  Connecti- 
cut, the  deacons  wore  starched  white  linen  caps  in 
the  meeting-house  to  indicate  their  office,  —  a  singular 
local  custom.  One  of  their  duties  in  many  commu- 
nities was  naturally  to  furnish  the  sacramental  wines, 
and  the  money  for  the  payment  thereof  was  allowed 
to  them  from  the  church-rates,  or  was  raised  by  special 
taxation.  In  Farmington,  Connecticut,  in  1669,  each 
male  inhabitant  was  ordered  to  pay  a  peck  of  wheat  or 
one  shilling  to  the  deacons  of  the  church  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  the  sacrament.  In  Groton  church,  in 
1759,  "  4  Coppers  for  every  Sacrament  for  1  year " 
was  demanded  from  each  communicant.  In  Spring- 
field the  "  deacon's  rate  "  was  paid  in  "  wampam,"  - 
sixpence  in  "  wampam  "  or  a  peck  of  Indian  corn  from 
each  family  in  the  town.  This  special  tax  was  some- 
what modified  in  case  a  man  had  no  wife,  or  if  he 
were  not  a  church-member,  but  in  the  latter  case  he 
still  had  to  pay  some  dues,  though  of  course  he  could 
not  take  part  in  the  communion  service.  In  1734 
the  Milton  church  ordered  the  deacons  to  procure 
"good  Canary  Wine  for  the  Communion  Table.'* 
Abuses  sometimes  arose,  —  abominably  poor  wines 
were  furnished,  though  full  rates  were  paid  for  the 
purchase  of  wine  of  good  quality ;  and  in  Newbury 
the  man  who  was  appointed  to  furnish  the  sacra- 


THE  BEACON'S  OFFICE.  115 

mental  wines,  sold,  under  that  religious  cover,  wine 
and  liquors  at  retail. 

The  deacons  also  had  charge  of  the  vessels  used  in 
the  communion  service.  These  vessels  were  fre- 
quently stored,  when  not  in  use,  under  the  pulpit  in 
a  little  closet  which  opened  into  "the  Ministers  wives 
pue,"  and  which  was  fabled  to  be  at  the  disposal  of 
the  tithingmen  and  deacons  for  the  darksome  incar- 
ceration of  unruly  and  Sabbath-breaking  boys.  The 
communion  vessels  were  not  always  of  valuable  metal ; 
John  Cotton's  first  church  had  wooden  chalices ;  the 
wealthier  churches  owned  pieces  of  silver  which  had 
been  given  to  them,  one  piece  at  a  time,  by  members 
or  friends  of  the  church  ;  but  communion  services  of 
pewter  were  often  seen. 

The  church  in  Hanover,  Massachusetts,  bought  a 
pewter  service  in  1728,  and  the  record  of  the  purchase 
still  exists.  It  runs  thus :  — 

"  3  Pewter  Tankards  marked  C.  T.  10  shillings. 

5        "      Beakers         "        C.  E.  6  sh.  6d.  each. 

2        "     Platters         "        C.  P.  5  sh.  each. 
1        "      Basin  for  Baptisms." 

This  pewter  service  is  still  owned  by  the  Hanover 
church,  a  highly  prized  relic.  Until  1753  the  church 
in  Andover  used  a  pewter  commuSion  service,  but 
when  a  silver  service  was  given  to  it,  the  Andover 
church  sent  the  vessels  of  baser  metal  to  a  sister 
church  in  Methuen.  In  Haverhill  the  will  of  a 
church-member  named  White  gave  to  the  church 


116        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

absolutely  the  pewter  dishes  which  were  used  at  the 
sacrament,  and  which  had  been  his  personal  prop- 
erty. The  "ffirst  church"  of  Hartford  had  "one 
Puter  fflagon,  ffower  pewter  dishes,  and  a  bason"  left 
to  it  by  the  bequest  of  one  of  its  members.  When  the 
Danvers  church  was  burned  in  1805,  the  pewter  com- 
munion vessels  were  saved  while  the  silver  ones  were 
either  burnt  or  stolen.  As  pewter  was,  in  the  early 
days  of  New  England,  far  from  being  a  despised  metal, 
and  as  pewter  dishes  and  plates  were  seen  on  the 
tables  of  the  wealthiest  families,  were  left  by  will  as 
precious  possessions,  were  engraved  with  initials  and 
stamped  with  coats  of  arms,  and  polished  with  as 
much  care  as  were  silver  vessels,  a  communion  ser- 
vice of  pewter  was  doubtless  felt  to  be  a  thoroughly 
satisfactory  acquisition  and  appointment  to  a  Puritan 
church. 

The  deacons  of  course  took  charge  of  the  church 
contributions.  Lechford,  in  his  "Plaine  Dealing," 
thus  describes  the  manner  of  giving  in  the  Boston 
church  in  1641 :  — 

"  Baptism  being  ended,  follows  the  contribution,  one  of 
the  deacons  saying,  *  Brethren  of  the  Congregation,  now 
there  is  time  left  for  contribution,  whereof  as  God  has 
prospered  you  so  freely  offer.'  The  Magistrates  and  chief 
gentlemen  first,  and  then  the  Elders  and  all  the  Congre- 
gation of  them,  and  most  of  them  that  are  not  of 
church,  all  single  persons,  widows  and  women  in  Absence 
of  their  husbands,  came  up  one  after  another  one  way, 
and  bring  their  offering  to  the  deacon  at  his  seat,  and  put 


THE  DEACON'S  OFFICE.  117 

it  into  a  box  of  wood  for  the  purpose,  if  it  be  money  or 
papers.  If  it  be  any  other  Chattel  they  set  or  lay  it  down 
before  the  deacons  ;  and  so  pass  on  another  way  to  their 
seats  again ;  which  money  and  goods  the  Deacons  dis- 
pose towards  the  maintenance  of  the  Minister,  and  the 
poor  of  the  Church,  and  the  Churches  occasions  without 
making  account  ordinarily." 

Lechford  also  said  he  saw  a  "  faire  gilt  cup  "  given 
at  the  public  contribution ;  and  other  gifts  of  value 
to  the  church  and  minister  were  often  made.  Libel- 
lous verses  too  were  thrown  into  the  contribution 
boxes,  and  warning  and  gloomy  messages  from  the 
Quakers ;  and  John  Rogers,  in  derision  of  a  pompous 
Xew  London  minister,  threw  in  the  insulting  contri- 
bution of  an  old  periwig.  One  Puritan  goodwife, 
sternly  unforgiving,  never  saw  a  contribution  taken 
for  proselyting  the  Indians  without  depositing  in  the 
contribution-box  a  number  of  leaden  bullets,  the  only 
tokens  she  wished  to  see  ever  dispersed  among  the 
red  men. 

Even  our  pious  forefathers  were  not  always  quite 
honest  in  their  church  contributions,  and  had  to  be 
publicly  warned,  as  the  records  show,  that  they  must 
deposit  "  wampum  without  break  or  deforming  spots," 
or  "  passable  peage  without  breaches."  The  New  Ha- 
ven church  was  particularly  tormented  by  canny  Pu- 
ritans who  thus  managed  to  dispose  of  their  broken 
and  worthless  currency  with  apparent  Christian  gen- 
erosity. In  1650  the  New  Haven  "  deacons  informed 
the  Court  that  the  wampum  which  is  putt  into  the 


118        THE   SABBATH   IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Church  Treasury  is  generally  so  bad  that  the  Elders 
to  whom  they  pay  it  cannot  pay  it  away." 

In  1651,  as  the  bad  wampum  was  still  paid  in 
by  the  pious  New  Haven  Puritans,  it  was  ordered  that 
"  no  money  save  silver  or  bills  "  be  accepted  by  the 
deacons.  After  this  order  the  deacons  and  elders 
found  tremendous  difficulty  in  getting  any  contribu- 
tions at  all,  and  many  are  the  records  of  the  actions 
and  decisions  of  the  church  in  regard  to  the  perplex- 
ing matter.  It  should  be  said,  in  justice  to  the  New 
Haven  colonists,  though  they  were  the  most  opulent 
of  the  New  England  planters,  save  the  wealthy  set- 
tlers of  Narragansett,  that  money  of  all  kinds  was 
scarce,  and  that  the  Indian  money,  wampum-peag, 
being  made  of  a  comparatively  frail  sea-shell,  was 
more  easily  disfigured  and  broken  than  was  metal 
coin;  and  that  there  was  little  transferable  wealth 
in  the  community  anyway,  even  in  "  Country  Pay." 
The  broken-wampum-giver  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
who  contributed  with  intent  to  defraud  and  deceive 
the  infant  struggling  church  was  the  direct  and  lineal 
ancestor  of  the  sanctimonious  button-giver  of  nine- 
teenth-century country  churches. 

In  Revolutionary  times,  after  the  divine  service,  spe- 
cial contributions  were  taken  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Continental  Army.  In  New  England  large  quantities 
of  valuable  articles  were  thus  collected.  Not  only 
money,  but  finger-rings,  earrings,  watches,  and  other 
jewelry,  all  kinds  of  male  attire,  —  stockings,  hats, 
coats,  breeches,  shoes,  —  produce  and  groceries  of  all 


THE  DEACON'S  OFFICE.  119 

kinds,  were  brought  to  the  meeting-house  to  give  to 
the  soldiers.  Even  the  leaden  weights  were  taken  out 
of  the  window-sashes,  made  into  bullets,  and  brought 
to  meeting.  On  one  occasion  Madam  Faith  Trum- 
bull  rose  up  in  Lebanon  meeting-house  in  Connecti- 
cut, when  a  collection  was  being  made  for  the  army, 
took  from  her  shoulders  a  magnificent  scarlet  cloak, 
which  had  been  a  present  to  her  from  Count  Rocham- 
beau,  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  French  allied 
army,  and  advancing  to  the  altar,  gave  it  as  her  offer- 
ing to  the  gallant  men,  who  were  fighting  not  only  the 
British  army,  but  terrible  want  and  suffering.  The 
fine  cloak  was  cut  into  narrow  strips  and  used  as  red 
trimmings  for  the  uniforms  of  the  soldiers.  The 
romantic  impressiveness  of  Madam  Trumbull's  patri- 
otic act  kindled  warm  enthusiasm  in  the  congrega- 
tion, and  an  enormous  collection  was  taken,  packed 
carefully,  and  sent  to  the  army. 

One  early  duty  of  the  deacons  which  was  religiously 
and  severely  performed  was  to  watch  that  no  one  but 
an  accepted  communicant  should  partake  of  the  holy 
sacrament.  One  stern  old  Puritan,  having  been  offi- 
cially expelled  from  church-membership  for  some 
temporal  rather  than  spiritual  offence,  though  ignored 
by  the  all-powerful  deacon,  still  refused  to  consider 
himself  excommunicated,  and  calmly  and  doggedly 
attended  the  communion  service  bearing  his  own  wine 
and  bread,  and  in  the  solitude  of  his  own  pew  com- 
muned with  God,  if  not  with  his  fellow-men.  For 
nearly  twenty  years  did  this  austere  man  rigidly  go 


120        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

through  this  lonely  and  sad  ceremonial,  until  he 
conquered  by  sheer  obstinacy  and  determination,  and 
was  again  admitted  to  church-fellowship. 

A  very  extraordinary  custom  prevailed  in  several 
New  England  churches.  Through  it  the  deacons  were 
assigned  a  strange  and  serious  duty  which  appeared 
to  make  them  all-important  and  possibly  self-impor- 
tant, and  which  must  have  weighed  heavily  upon 
them,  were  they  truly  godly,  and  conscientious  in  the 
performance  of  it.  In  the  rocky  little  town  of  Pelham 
in  the  heart  of  Massachusetts,  toward  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  during  the  pastorate  of  the 
notorious  thief,  counterfeiter,  and  forger,  Rev.  Stephen 
Burroughs,  that  remarkable  rogue  organized  and  in- 
troduced to  his  parishioners  the  custom  of  giving 
during  the  month  a  metal  check  to  each  worthy  and 
truly  virtuous  church-member,  on  presentation  of 
which  the  check-bearer  was  entitled  to  partake  of 
the  communion,  and  without  which  he  was  tempo- 
rarily excommunicated.  The  duty  of  the  deacon  in 
this  matter  was  to  walk  up  and  down  the  aisles  of  the 
church  at  the  close  of  each  service  and  deliver  to  the 
proper  persons  (proper  in  the  deacon's  halting  human 
judgment)  the  significant  checks.  The  deacon  had 
also  to  see  that  this  religionistic  ticket  was  presented 
on  the  communion  Sabbath.  Great  must  have  been 
the  disgrace  of  one  who  found  himself  checkless  at 
the  end  of  the  month,  and  greater  even  than  the  heart- 
burnings over  seating  the  meeting  must  have  been  the 
jealousies  and  church  quarrels  that  arose  over  the 


THE  DEACON'S   OFFICE.  121 

• 

communion-checks.  And  yet  no  records  of  the  pro- 
tests or  complaints  of  indignant  or  grieving  parish- 
ioners can  be  found,  and  the  existence  of  the  too 
worldly,  too  business-like  custom  is  known  to  us 
only  through  tradition. 

Many  of  the  little  chips  called  "  Presby 
checks"  are,  however,  still  in  existence.  The 
oblong  discs  of  pewter,  about  an  inch  and  a  half 
bearing  the  initials"  P.  P.,"  which  stand, it  is  said,  for 
"  Pelham  Presbyterian."  I  could  not  but  reflect,  as  I 
looked  at  the  simple  little  stamped  slips  of  metal,  that 
in  a  community  so  successful  in  the  difficult  work  of 
counterfeiting  coin,  it  would  have  been  very  easy  to 
form  a  mould  and  cast  from  it  spurious  checks  with 
which  to  circumvent  the  deacons  and  preserve  due 
dignity  in  the  meeting. 

The  Presbyterian  checks  have  never  been  attributed 
in  Massachusetts  to  other  than  the  Pelham  church, 
and  are  usually  found  in  towns  in  the  vicinity  of 
Pelham ;  and  there  the  story  of  their  purpose  and  use 
is  universally  and  implicitly  believed.  A  clergyman 
of  the  Pelham  church  gave  to  many  of  his  friends 
these  Presbyterian  checks,  which  he  had  found  among 
the  disused  and  valueless  church-properties,  and  the 
little  relics  of  the  old-time  deacons  and  services  have 
been  carefully  preserved. 

In  New  Hampshire,  however,  a  similar  custom 
prevailed  in  the  churches  of  Londonderry  and  the 
neighboring  towns.  The  Londonderry  settlers  were 
Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  (and  the  Pelham  planters 


122         THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

were  an  off-shoot  of  the  Londonderry  settlement),  and 
they  followed  the  custom  of  the  Scotch  Presbyterians 
in  convening  the  churches  twice  a  year  to  partake 
of  the  Lord's  Supper.  This  assembly  was  always 
held  in  Londonderry,  and  ministers  and  congrega- 
tions gathered  from  all  the  towns  around.  Prepara- 
tory services  were  held  on  Thursday,  Friday,  and 
Saturday.  Long  tables  were  placed  in  the  aisles  of 
the  church  on  the  Sabbath ;  and  after  a  protracted 
and  solemn  address  upon  the  deep  meaning  of  the 
celebration  and  the  duties  of  the  church-members, 
the  oldest  members  of  the  congregation  were  seated 
at  the  table  and  partook  of  the  sacrament.  Thin 
cakes  of  unleavened  bread  were  specially  prepared 
for  this  sacred  service.  Again  and  again  were  the 
tables  refilled  with  communicants,  for  often  seven 
hundred  church-members  were  present.  Thus  the 
services  were  prolonged  from  early  morning  until 
nightfall.  When  so  many  were  to  partake  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  it  seemed  necessary  to  take  means 
to  prevent  any  unworthy  or  improper  person  from 
presenting  himself.  Hence  the  tables  were  fenced  off, 
and  each  communicant  was  obliged  to  present  a  "  to- 
ken." These  tokens  were  similar  to  the  "Presby- 
terian checks ; "  they  were  little  strips  of  lead  or  pew- 
ter stamped  with  the  initials  "  L.  D.,"  which  may  have 
stood  for  "  Londonderry  "  or  "  Lord's  Day."  They  were 
presented  during  the  year  by  the  deacons  and  elders 
to  worthy  and  pious  church-members.  This  bi-annual 
celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  —  this  gathering  of 


THE  DEACON'S   OFFICE.  123 

old  friends  and  neighbors  from  the  rocky  wilds  of 
New  Hampshire  to  join  in  holy  communion  —  was 
followed  on  Monday  by  cheerful  thanksgiving  and 
social  intercourse,  in  which,  as  in  every  fea,st,  our  old 
friend,  New  England  rum,  played  no  unimportant 
part.  The  three  days  previous  to  the  communion  Sab- 
bath were,  however,  solemnly  devoted  to  the  worship 
of  God ;  a  Londonderry  man  was  reproved  and  prose- 
cuted for  spreading  grain  upon  a  Thursday  preceding 
a  communion  Sunday,  just  as  he  would  have  been 
for  doing  similar  work  upon  the  Sabbath.  The  use 
of  these  "  tokens  "  in  the  Londonderry  church  con- 
tinued until  the  year  1830. 

In  the  coin  collection  of  the  American  Antiqua- 
rian Society  are  little  pewter  communion-checks,  or 
tokens,  stamped  with  a  heart.  These  were  used  in 
the  Presbyterian  church  in  Philadelphia,  and  were 
delivered  to  pious  church-members  at  the  Friday 
evening  prayer-meeting  preceding  the  communion 
Sabbath.  Long  tables  were  set  in  the  aisles,  as  at 
Londonderry.  In  practice,  belief,  and  origin,  the  New 
Hampshire  and  Pennsylvania  churches  were  sisters. 

The  deacons  had  many  minor  duties  to  perform%in 
the  different  parishes.  Some  of  these  duties  they 
shared  with  the  tithingman.  They  visited  the  homes 
of  the  church -members  to  hear  the  children  say  the 
catechism,  they  visited  and  prayed  with  the  sick,  and 
they  also  reported  petty  offences,  though  they  were 
not  accorded  quite  so  powerful  legal  authority  as  the 
tithingmen  and  constables. 


124         THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

It  was  much  desired  by  several  of  the  first-settled 
ministers  that  there  should  be  deaconesses  in  the 
New  England  Puritan  church,  and  many  good  reasons 
were  given  for  making  such  appointments.  It  was 
believed  that  for  the  special  duty  of  visiting  the  sick 
and  afflicted  in  the  community  deaconesses  would  be 
more  useful  than  deacons.  There  had  been  an  aged 
deaconess  in  the  Puritan  church  in  Holland,  who  with 
a  "  little  birchen  rod  "  had  kept  the  children  in  awe 
and  order  in  meeting,  and  who  had  also  exercised 
"  her  guifts  "  in  speaking  ;  but  when  she  died  no  New 
England  successor  was  appointed  to  fill  her  place. 


XL 

THE  PSALM-BOOK   OF  THE  PILGRIMS. 

WE  read  in  "The  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish,"  of 
the  fair  Priscilla,  when  John  Alden  came  to  woo  her 
for  his  friend,  the  warlike  little  captain,  that 

"Open    wide    on    her   lap    lay  the  well-worn   psalin-book  of 

Ainsworth, 

Printed  in  Amsterdam,  the  words  and  the  music  together; 
Rough-hewn,  angular  notes,   like  stones  in    the    wall   of   a 

churchyard, 

Darkened  and  overhung  by  the  running  vine  of  the  verses. 
Such  was  the  book  from  whose  pages  she  sang  the  old  Puritan 

anthem." 

One  of  these  "well-worn  psalm-books  of  Ains- 
worth" lies  now  before  me,  perhaps  the  very  one 
from  which  the  lonely  Priscilla  sang  as  she  sat  a- 
spinning. 

There  is  something  especially  dear  to  the  lover  and 
dreamer  of  the  olden  time,  to  the  book-lover  and 
antiquary  as  well,  in  an  old,  worn  psalm  or  hymn 
book.  It  speaks  quite  as  eloquently  as  does  an  old 
Bible  of  loving  daily  use,  and  adds  the  charm  of  in- 
terest in  the  quaint  verse  to  reverence  for  the  sacred 
word.  A  world  of  tender  fancies  springs  into  life  as 


126        THE  SABBATH  IN  PUKITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

I  turn  over  the  pages  of  any  old  psalm-book  "  reading 
between  the  lines,"  and  as  I  decipher  the  faded 
script  on  the  titlepage.  But  this  "  psalm-book  of 
Ainsworth,"  this  book  loved  and  used  by  the  Pilgrims, 
brought  over  in  one  of  those  early  ships,  perhaps  in 
the  "  Mayflower "  itself,  this  book  so  symbolic  of 
those  early  struggling  days  in  New  England,  has  a 
romance,  a  charm,  an  interest  which  thrills  every 
drop  of  Puritan  blood  in  my  veins. 

It  is  pleasing,  too,  this  "Ainsworth's  Version," 
aside  from  any  thought  of  its  historic  associations  ; 
its  square  pages  of  diversified  type  are  well  printed, 
and  have  a  quaint  unfamiliar  look  which  is  intensely 
attractive,  and  to  which  the  odd,  irregular  notes  of 
music,  the  curiously  ornamented  head  and  tail  pieces, 
and  the  occasional  Hebrew  or  Greek  letters  add  their 
undefmable  charm. 

It  is  a  square  quarto  of  three  hundred  and  forty- 
eight  closely  printed  pages,  bound  in  time-stained  but 
well-preserved  parchment,  and  even  the  parchment 
itself  is  interesting,  and  lovely  to  the  touch.  The 
titlepage  is  missing,  but  I  know  that  this  is  the  edi- 
tion printed,  as  was  Priscilla's,  in  Amsterdam  in 
1612  (not  "  in  England  in  1600 "  as  a  note  written 
in  the  last  blank  page  states).  The  full  title  was 
"The  Book  of  Psalms.  Englished  both  in  Prose 
and  Metre.  With  annotations  opening  the  words 
and  sentences  by  conference  with  other  Scriptures. 
Eph.  v :  18, 19.  Bee  yee  filled  with  the  Spirit  speak- 
ing to  yourselves  in  Psalms  and  Hymns  and  Spiritual- 


THE  PSALM-BOOK  OF  THE  PILGRIMS.          127 

Songs  singing  and  making  melodie  in  your  hearts  to 
the  Lord."  The  book  contains  besides  the  Psalms 
and  Annotations,  on  its  first  pages,  a  "  Preface  de- 
claring the  reason  and  use  of  the  Book ; "  and  at  the 
last  pages  a  "  Table  directing  to  some  principal  things 
observed  in  the  Annotations  of  the  Psalms,"  a  list  of 
"  Hebrew  phrases  observed  which  are  somewhat  hard 
and  figurative,"  and  also  some  "  General  Observations 
touching  the  Psalms." 

I  can  well  imagine  what  a  pious  delight  this  book 
was  to  our  Pilgrim  Fathers ;  and  what  a  still  greater 
delight  it  was  to  our  Pilgrim  Mothers,  in  that  day 
and  country  of  few  books.  They  possessed  in  it,  not 
only  a  wonderful  new  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms 
for  singing,  but  a  prose  version  for  comparison  as  well ; 
and  the  deeply  learned  and  profoundly  worded  annota- 
tions placed  at  the  end  of  each  Psalm  were  doubtless 
of  special  interest  to  such  "  scripturists  with  all  their 
hearts  "  as  they  were. 

There  were  also,  "  for  the  use  and  edification  of  the 
saints,"  printed  above  each  psalm  the  airs  of  appro- 
priate tunes.  The  "  rough-hewn,  angular  notes  "  are 
irregularly  lozenge-shaped,  like  the  notes  or  "pricks" 
in  Queen  Elizabeth's  "  Virginal-Book,"  and  are  placed 
on  the  staff  without  bars.  Ainsworth,  in  his  preface, 
says, "  Tunes  for  the  Psalms  I  find  none  set  of  God  : 
so  that  ech  people  is  to  use  the  most  grave  decent  and 
comfortable  manner  that  they  know  how,  according  to 
the  general  rule.  The  singing  notes  I  have  most 
taken  from  our  Englished  psalms  when  they  will  fit 


128   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

the  mesure  of  the  verse :  and  for  the  other  long 
verses  I  have  also  taken  (for  the  most  part)  the 
gravest  and  easiest  tunes  of  the  French  and  Dutch 
psalmes."  Easy  the  tunes  certainly  are,  to  the  utmost 
degree  of  simplicity. 

Great  diversity  too  of  type  did  the  Pilgrims  find  in 
their  Psalm-book :  Roman  type,  Italics,  black-letter, 
all  were  used ;  the  verse  was  printed  in  Italics,  the 
prose  in  Roman  type,  and  the  annotation  in  black- 
letter  and  small  Roman  text  with  close-spaced  lines. 
This  variety  though  picturesque  makes  the  text  rather 
difficult  to  read ;  for  while  one  can  decipher  black- 
letter  readily  enough  when  reading  whole  pages  of  it, 
when  it  is  interspersed  with  other  type  it  makes  the 
print  somewhat  confusing  to  the  unaccustomed  eye. 

One  curious  characteristic  of  the  typography  is  the 
frequent  use  of  the  hyphen,  compound  words  or  rather 
compound  phrases  being  formed  apparently  without 
English  rule  or  reason.  Such  combinations  as  these 
are  given  as  instances  :  "  highly-him-preferre,"  "  re- 
nowned-name," "  repose-me-quietlie,"  "  in-mind-up- 
lay,"  "  turn-to-ashes,"  "  my-alonely-soul,"  "  beat-them- 
final,"  "  pouring-out-them-hard,"  "  inveyers-mak- 
streight,"  and  "  condemn-thou-them-as-guilty," 
which  certainly  would  make  fit  verses  to  be  sung  to 
the  accompaniment  of  Master  Mace's  "  excellent- 
large-plump-lusty-fullspeaking-organ." 

Ainsworth's  Version  when  read  proves  to  be  a 
scholarly  book,  exhibiting  far  better  grammar  and 
punctuation  and  more  uniformity  of  spelling  than 


THE  PSALM-BOOK  OF  THE  PILGRIMS.  129 

"  The  New  England  Psalm-book,"  which  at  a  later 
date  displaced  Ainsworth  in  the  affections  and  relig- 
ious services  of  the  New  England  Puritans  and  Pil- 
grims. Both  versions  are  somewhat  confused  in 
sense,  and  of  uncouth  and  grotesque  versification; 
though  the  metre  of  Ainsworth  is  better  than  the 
rhyme.  It  is  all  written  in  "  common  metre,"  nearly 
all  in  lines  of  eight  and  six  syllables  alternately. 

The  name  of  the  author  of  this  version  was  Henry 
Ainsworth ;  he  was  the  greatest  of  all  the  Holland 
Separatists,  a  typical  Elizabethan  Puritan,  who  left 
the  church  in  which  he  was  educated  and  attached 
himself  to  the  Separatists,  or  Brownists,  as  they  were 
called.  He  went  into  exile  in  Amsterdam  in  1593, 
and  worked  for  some  time  as  a  porter  in  a  book- 
seller's shop,  living  (as  Roger  Williams  wrote)  "  upon 
ninepence  in  the  weeke  with  roots  boyled."  He 
established,  with  the  Reverend  Mr.  Johnson,  the  new 
church  in  Holland  ;  and  when  it  was  divided  by  dis- 
sension, he  became  the  pastor  of  the  "  Ainsworthian 
Brownists"  and  so  remained  for  twelve  years.  He 
was  a  most  accomplished  scholar,  and  was  called  the 
"  rabbi  of  his  age."  Governor  Bradford,  in  his  "  Dia- 
logue," written  in  1648,  says  of  Ainsworth,  "He  had 
not  his  better  for  the  Hebrew  tongue  in  the  Univer- 
sity nor  scarce  in  Europe."  Hence,  naturally,  he  was 
constantly  engaged  upon  some  work  of  translating  or 
commentating,  and  still  so  highly  prized  is  some  of 
his  work  that  it  has  been  reprinted  during  this  cen- 
tury. He  also,  being  a  skilful  disputant,  wrote 

9 


130   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

innumerable  controversial  pamphlets  and  books4  many 
of  which  still  exist.  It  is  said  that  he  once  had  a 
long  and  spirited  controversy  with  a  brother  divine  as 
to  whether  the  ephod  of  Aaron  were  blue  or  green. 
I  fear  we  of  to-day  have  lost  much  that  the  final, 
decisive  judgment  from  so  learned  scholars  and 
students  as  to  the  correct  color  has  not  descended  to 
us,  and  now,  if  we  wish  to  know,  we  shall  have  to  fight 
it  all  over  again. 

In  spite  of  his  power  of  argument  (or  perhaps  on 
account  of  it)  the  most  prominent  part  which  Ains- 
worth  seemed  to  take  in  Amsterdam  for  many  years 
was  that  of  peacemaker,  as  many  of  his  contempora- 
ries testify  :  for  they  quarrelled  fiercely  among  them- 
selves in  the  exiled  church,  though  they  had  such  sore 
need  of  unity  and  good  fellowship ;  and  they  had 
many  church  arguments  and  judgments  and  lawsuits. 
They  quarrelled  over  the  exercise  of  power  in  the 
church ;  over  the  true  meaning  of  the  text  Mat- 
thew xviii.  17  ;  whether  the  members  of  the  congre- 
gation should  be  allowed  to  look  on  their  Bibles 
during  the  preaching  or  on  their  Psalm-books  during 
the  singing ;  whether  they  should  sing  at  all  in  their 
meetings  ;  over  the  power  of  the  office  of  ruling  elder 
(a  fruitful  source  of  dissension  and  disruption  in  the 
New  England  congregations  likewise)  and  above  all, 
they  quarrelled  long  and  bitterly  over  the  unseemly 
and  gay  dress  of  the  parson's  wife,  Madam  Johnson. 
These  were  the  terrible  accusations  that  were  brought 
against  that  bedizened  Puritan:  that  she  wore  "her 


THE  PSALM-BOOK  OF  THE  PILGRIMS  131 

bodies  tied  to  the  petticote  with  points  as  men  do 
tfieir  doublets  and  hose ;  contrary  to  1  Thess.  v :  22, 
conferred  with  Deut.  xx :  11 ; "  that  she  also  wore 
"  lawn  coives,"  and  "  busks,"  and  "  whalebones  in  the 
petticote  bodies,"  and  a  "  veluet  hoode,"  and  a  "  long 
white  brest ; "  and  that  she  "  stood  gazing  bracing 
and  vaunting  in  the  shop  dores ; "  and  that  "  men 
called  her  a  bounceing  girl "  (as  if  she  could  help  that !). 
And  one  of  her  worst  and  most  bitterly  condemned 
offences  was  that  she  wore  "  a  topish  hat."  This  her 
husband  vehemently  denied ;  and  long  discussions 
and  explanations  followed  on  the  hat's  topishness,  — 
"Mr.  Ainsworth  dilating  much  upon  a  greeke  worde" 
(as  of  course  so  learned  a  man  would).  For  the 
benefit  of  unlearned  modern  children  of  the  Puritans 
let  me  give  the  old  Puritan's  precise  explanation  and 
classification  of'  topishness.  "  Though  veluet  in  its 
nature  were  not  topish,  yet  if  common  mariners 
should  weare  such  it  would  be  a  sign  of  pride  and 
topishness  in  them.  Also  a  gilded  raper  and  a 
feather  are  not  topish  in  their  nature,  neither  in  a 
captain  to  weare  them,  and  yet  if  a  minister  should 
weare  them  they  would  be  signs  of  great  vanity  topish- 
ness and  lightness."  1  wonder  that  topish  hat  had 
not  undone  the  whole  Puritan  church  in  Holland. 

In  settling  all  these  and  many  other  disputes,  in 
translating,  commentating,  and  versifying,  did  Henry 
Ainsworth  pass  his  days ;  until,  worn  out  by  hard 
labor,  and  succumbing  to  long  continued  weakness,  he 
died  in  1623.  This  romantic  story  of  his  death  is 


132   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

told  by  Neal.  "  It  was  sudden  and  not  without  sus- 
picion of  violence ;  for  it  is  reported  that,  having 
found  a  diamond  of  very  great  value  in  the  streets  of 
Amsterdam,  he  advertised  it  in  print ;  and  when  the 
owner,  who  was  a  Jew,  came  to  demand  it,  he  offered 
him  any  acknowledgment  he  would  desire,  but  Ains- 
worth  though  poor  would  accept  of  nothing  but  con- 
ference with  some  of  his  rabbis  upon  the  prophecies 
of  the  Old  Testament  relating  to  the  Messiah,  which 
the  other  promised,  but  not  having  interest  enough  to 
obtain  it  he  was  poisoned."  This  rather  ambiguous 
sentence  means  that  Ainsworth  was  poisoned,  not  the 
Jew.  Brooks's  account  of  the  story  is  that  the  confer- 
ence took  place,  the  Jews  were  vanquished,  and  in 
revenge  poisoned  the  champion  of  Christianity  after- 
wards. Dexter  most  unromantically  throws  cold 
water  on  this  poisoning  story,  and  adduces  much  cir- 
cumstantial testimony  to  prove  its  improbability ;  but 
it  could  hardly  have  been  invented  in  cold  blood  by 
the  Puritan  historians,  and  must  have  had  some 
foundation  in  truth.  And  since  he  is  dead,  and  the 
thought  cannot  harm  him,  I  may  acknowledge  that  I 
firmly  believe  and  I  like  to  believe  that  he  died  in  so 
romantic  a  way. 

The  Puritans  were  psalm-singers  ever ;  and  in 
Holland  the  Brownist  division  of  the  church  came 
under  strong  influences  from  Geneva  and  Witten- 
berg, the  birth-places  of  psalm-singing,  that  made 
them  doubly  fond  of  "  worship  in  song."  Hence  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  Brewster,  Bradford,  Carver,  and 


THE  PSALM-BOOK  OF  THE  PILGRIMS.  133 

Standish,  for  love  of  music  as  well  as  in  affectionate 
testimony  to  their  old  pastor  and  friend,  brought  to 
the  New  World  copies  of  his  version  of  the  Psalms 
and  sang  from  it  with  delight  and  profit  to  them- 
selves, if  not  with  ease  and  elegance. 

Dexter  says  very  mildly  of  Ainsworth's  literary 
work  that  "  there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  and  it  is  no 
offence  to  his  memory  to  conclude  that  he  shone  more 
as  an  exegete  than  as  a  poet."  Poesy  is  a  gift  of  the 
gods  and  cometh  not  from  deep  Hebrew  study  nor 
from  vast  learning,  and  we  must  accept  Ainsworth's 
pious  enthusiasm  in  the  place  of  poetic  fervor.  Of  the 
quality  of  his  work,  however,  it  is  best  to  judge  for 
one's  self.  Here  is  his  rendition  of  the  Nineteenth 
Psalm,  so  well  known  to  us  in  verse  by  Addison's 
glorious  "  The  spacious  firmament  on  high."  The 
prose  version  is  printed  in  one  column  and  the  verse 
by  its  side. 


1.  To  the  Mayster  of  the  Musik  :  A  Psalm  of  David 

2.  The  heavens,  doo  tel  the  glory  of  God  :  and  the  out-spred 

firmament  sheweth;  the  work  of  his  hand. 

3.  Day  unto    day  uttereth    speech :    and  night  unto  night 

manifesteth  knowledge  : 

4.  No  speech,  and  no  words  :  not  heard  is  their  voice 

5.  Through  all  the  earth,  gone-forth  is  their  line:  and  unto 

the  utmost-end  of  the  world  their  speakings:   he  hath 
put  a  tent  in  them  for  the  sun. 

6.  And  he;  as  a  bridegroom,  going- forth  out  of  his  privy- 

chamber:  joyes  as  a  mighty-man  to  run  a  race 

7.  From  the  utmost  end  of  the  heavens  is  his  egress;  and  his 

compassing-regress  is  unto  the  utmost-ends  of  them: 
and  none  is  hidd,  from  his  heat. 


134    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

2.  The  heav'ne,  doo  tel  the  glory  of  God 

and  his  firmament  dooth  preach 

3.  work  of  his  hands.     Day  unto  day 

dooth  largely-utter  speach 

and  night  unto  night  dooth  knowledge  shew 

4.  No  speach,  and  words  are  none. 

5.  thier  voice  it-is  not  heard.     Thier  line 

through  all  the  earth  is  gone  : 

and  to  the  worlds  end,  thier  speakings : 

in  them  he  did  dispose, 

6.  tent  for  the  Sun.    Who-bride-groom-like 

out  of  his  chamber  goes : 

ioyes  strong-man-like,  to  run  a  race 

7.  From  heav'ns  end,  his  egress: 

and  his  regress  to  the  end  of  them 
hidd  from  his  heat,  none  is : 

In  order  to  show  the  proportion  of  annotation  in 
the  book,  and  to  indicate  the  mental  traits  of  the 
author,  let  me  state  that  this  psalm,  in  both  prose 
and  metrical  versions,  occupies  about  one  page; 
while  the  closely  printed  annotations  fill  over  three 
pages ;  which  is  hardly  "  explaining  with  brevitie," 
as  Ainsworth  says  in  his  preface.  With  this  psalm 
the  notes  commence  thus :  — 

"  2.  (the  out-spred-firmament)  the  whole  cope  of 
heaven,  with  the  aier  which  though  it  be  soft  and  liquid 
and  spred  over  the  Earth,  yet  it  is  fast  and  firm  and 
therefore  called  of  us  according  to  the  common  Greek 
version  a  firmament :  the  holy  Ghost  expresseth  it  by 
another  term  Mid-heaven.  This  out-spred-firmament 
of  expansion  God  made  amidds  the  waters  for  a  sepa- 
ration and  named  it  Heaven,  which  of  David  is  said  to 


THE  PSALM-BOOK  OF  THE  PILGRIMS.  135 

be  stretched  out  as  courtayn  and  elsewhere  is  said 
to  be  as  firm  as  moulten  glass.  So  under  this  name 
firmament  be  commised  the  orbs  of  the  heav'ns  and 
the  aier  and  the  whole  spacious  country  above  the 
earth." 

These  annotations  must  have  formed  to  the  Pil- 
grims not  only  a  dictionary  but  a  perfect  encyclo- 
paedia of  useful  knowledge.  Things  spiritual  and 
things  temporal  were  explained  therein.  Scientific, 
historic,  and  religious  information  were  dispensed  im- 
partially. Much  and  varied  instruction  was  given  in 
Natural  History,  though  viewed  of  course  from  a 
strictly  religious  point  of  view.  The  little  Pilgrims 
learned  from  their  Psalm-Book  that  the  u  Leviathan 
is  the  great  whalefish  or  seadragon,  so  called  of  the 
fast  joyning  together  of  his  scales  as  he  is  described 
Job  40 :  20, 41  and  is  used  to  resemble  great  tyrants." 
They  also  learned  that  "  Lions  of  sundry-kinds  have 
sundry-names.  Tear-in-pieces  like  a  lion.  That  he 
ravin  not,  make-a-prey  ;  called  a  plueker  Renter  or 
Tearer,  and  elsewhere  Laby  that  is,  Harty  and  coura- 
gious  ;  Kphir,  this  lurking,  Couchant.  The  reason  of 
thier  names  is  shewed,  as  The  renting-lion  as  greedy 
to  tear,  and  the  lurking-Lion  as  biding  in  covert 
places.  Other  names  are  also  given  to  this  kind  as 
Shacbal,  of  ramping,  of  fierce  nature ;  and  Lajith  of 
subduing  his  prey.  Psalm  LVI  Lions  called  here 
Lebain,  harty,  stowt  couragious,  Lions.  Lions  are 
mentioned  in  the  Scriptures  for  the  stowtness  of  thier 
hart,  boldnes,  and  grimnes  ot  thier  countenance," 


136         THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Here  are  other  annotations  taken  at  nap-hazard 
The  lines, 

"  Al  they  that  doo  upon  me  look 

a  scoff  at  me  doe  make 
they  with  the  lip  do  make-a-mow 
the  head  they  scornful-shake," 

Ainsworth  thus  explains :  "  Make-a-mow,  making- 
an-opening  with  the  lip  which  may  be  taken  both  for 
mowing  and  thrusting  out  of  the  lip  and  for  licentious 
opening  thereof  to  speak  reproach."  The  expression 
"  Keep  thou  me  as  the  black  of  the  apple  of  the  eye  " 
is  thus  annotated  :  "  The  black,  that  is,  the  sight  in 
the  midds  of  the  eye  wherein  appeareth  the  resem- 
blance of  a  little  man,  and"  thereupon  seemeth  to  be 
called  in  Hebrew  Ishon  which  is  a  man.  And  as 
that  part  is  blackish  so  this  word  is  also  used  for 
other  black  things  as  the  blackness  of  night.  The 
apple  so  we  call  that  which  the  Hebrew  here  calleth 
bath  and  babath  that  is  the  babie  or  little  image 
appearing  in  the  eye."  Anger  receives  this  definition : 
"  ire,  outward  in  the  face,  grauue,  grimnes  or  fiercenes 
of  countenance.  The  original  Aph  signifieth  both  the 
nose  by  which  one  breatheth,  and  Anger  which  ap- 
peareth in  the  snuffing  or  breathing  of  the  nose." 

Before  the  Holland  exiles  had  this  version  of  Ains- 
worth's  to  sing  from,  they  used  the  book  known  as 
"  Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  Psalms."  They  gave  it  up 
gladly  to  show  honor  to  the  work  of  their  loved 
pastor,  and  perhaps  also  with  a  sense  of  pleasure  in 
not  having  to  sing  any  verses  which  had  been  used 


THE  PSALM-BOOK  OF   THE  PILGRIMS.  137 

and  authorized  by  the  Church  of  England.  In  doing 
this  they  had  to  abandon,  however,  such  spirited  lines 
as  Sternhold's  — 

"The  earth  did  shake,  for  feare  did  quake 

the  hills  their  bases  shook. 
"Removed  they  were,  in  place  most  fayre 
at  God's  right  fearfull  looks. 

"  He  rode  on  hye,  and  did  soe  flye 

Upon  the  cherubins 
He  came  in  sight  and  made  his  flight 
Upon  the  winges  of  windes." 

They  sung  instead, — 

"  And  th'  earth  did  shake  and  quake  and  styrred  bee 
grounds  of  the  mount :  &  shook  for  wroth  was  hee 
Smoke  mounted,  in  his  wrath,  fyre  did  eat 
out  of  his  mouth  :  from  it  burned-with  heat." 

Alas,  poor  Priscilla !  how  could  she  sing  with  ease 
or  reverence  such  confused  verses  ?  The  tune,  too, 
set  in  the  psalm-book  seems  absolutely  unfitted  to 
the  metre.  I  fear  when  she  sang  from  the  pages 
"  the  old  Puritan  anthem  "  that  she  was  forced  to 
turn  it  into  a  chant,  else  the  irregular  lines  could 
never  have  been  brought  within  the  compass  of  the 
melody  ;  and  yet,  the  metre  is  certainly  better  than 
the  sense. 

It  may  be  thought  that  these  selections  of  the 
Psalms  have  been  chosen  for  their  crudeness  and  gro- 
tesqueness.  I  have  tried  in  vain  to  find  othersome 


138        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN   NEW   ENGLAND. 

that  would  show  more  elegant  finish  or  more  of  the 
spirit  of  poetry;  the  most  poetical  lines  I  can  dis- 
cover are  these,  which  are  beautiful  for  the  reason 
that  the  noble  thoughts  of  the  Psalmist  cannot 
be  hidden,  even  by  the  wording  of  the  learned  Puri- 
tan minister :  — 

1 .  Jehovah  feedeth  me  :  I  shall  not  lack 

2.  In  grassy  fields,  he  downe  dooth  make  me  lye  : 

he  gently-leads  mee,  quiet- Waters  by. 

3.  He  dooth  return  my  soul  :  for  his  name-sake 

in  paths  of  justice  leads-me-quietly. 

4.  Yea,  though  I  walk  in  dale  of  deadly-shade 

ile  fear  none  yll,  for  with  me  thou  wilt  be 
thy  rod,  thy  staff  eke,  they  shall  comfort  mee. 

But  few  of  these  psalm-books  of  Ainsworth  are  now 
in  existence ;  but  few  indeed  came  to  New  England. 
Elder  Brewster  owned  one,  as  is  shown  by  the  in- 
ventory of  the  books  in  his  library.  Not  every 
member  of  the  congregation,  not  every  family  pos- 
sessed one ;  many  were  too  poor,  many  "  lacked  skill 
to  read,"  and  in  some  communities  only  one  psalm- 
book  was  owned  in  the  entire  church.  Hence  arose 
the  odious  custom  of  "deaconing"  or  "lining"  the 
psalm,  by  which  each  line  was  read  separately  by 
the  deacon  or  elder  and  then  sung  by  the  congre- 
gation. There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  this  Ains- 
worth's  Version  was  used  in  many  of  the  early  New 
England  meetings.  Reverend  Thomas  Symmes,  in 
his  "  Joco-Serious  Dialogue,"  printed  in  1723,  wrote: 
"  Furthermore  the  Church  of  Plymouth  made  use  of 


THE  PSALM-BOOK  OF  THE  PILGRIMS.  139 

Ainsworths  Version  of  the  Psalms  until  the  year 
1692.  For  altho'  our  New  England  version  of  the 
Psalms  was  compiled  by  sundry  hands  and  com- 
pleted by  President  Dunster  about  the  year  1640  ; 
yet  that  church  did  not  use  it,  it  seems,  'till  two  and 
fifty  years  after  but  stuck  to  Ainsworth  ;  and  until 
about  1682  their  excellent  custom  was  to  sing  without 
reading  the  lines." 

John  Cotton's  account  of  the  Salem  church  written 
in  1760,  says,  "  On  June  19,  1692,  the  pastor  pro- 
pounded to  the  church  that  seeing  many  of  the  psalms 
in  Mr.  Ains worth's  translation  which  had  hitherto 
been  sung  in  the  congregation  had  such  difficult  tunes 
that  none  in  the  church  could  set,  they  would  con- 
sider of  some  expedient  that  they  might  sing  all  the 
psalms.  After  some  time  of  consideration  on  Au- 
gust 7  following,  the  church  voted  that  when  the 
tunes  were  difficult  in  the  translation  then  used,  they 
would  make  use  of  the  New  England  psalm-book,  long 
before  received  in  the  churches  of  the  Massachusetts 
colony,  not  one  brother  opposing  the  conclusion.  But 
finding  it  inconvenient  to  use  two  psalm-books,  they 
at  length,  in  June  1696  agreed  wholly  to  lay  aside 
Ainsworth  and  with  general  consent  introduced  the 
other  which  is  used  to  this  day,  1760.  And  here  it 
will  be  proper  to  observe  that  it  was  their  practice 
until  the  beginning  of  October,  1681  to  sing  the 
psalms  without  reading  the  lines  ;  but  then,  at  the 
motion  of  a  brother  who  otherwise  could  not  join  in 
the  ordinance  [I  suppose  because  he  could  not  read] 


140        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

they  altered  the  custom,  and  reading  was  introduced, 
the  elder  performing  that  service  after  the  pastor  had 
first  expounded  the  psalm,  which  were  usually  sung  in 


course." 


On  the  blank  leaf  of  the  copy  of  Ainsworth  now 
lying  before  me  are  written  these  words, "  This  was 
used  in  Salem  half-a-century  from  the  first  settle- 
ment." In  a  record  of  the  Salem  church  is  this 
entry  of  a  church  meeting :  "  4  of  5th  month,  1667. 
The  pastor  having  formerly  propounded  and  given 
reasgn  for  the  use  of  the  Bay  Psalm  Book  in  regard 
to  the  difficulty  of  the  tunes  and  that  we  could  not 
sing  them  so  well  as  formerly  an'd  that  there  was  a 
singularity  in  our  using  Ainsworths  tunes :  but  espe- 
cially because  we  had  not  the  liberty  of  singing  all  the 
scripture  Psalms  according  to  Col.  iii.  16.  He  did 
not  again  propound  the  same,  and  after  several  breth- 
ren had  spoken,  there  was  at  last  a  unanimous  con- 
sent with  respect  to  the  last  reason  mentioned,  that 
the  Bay  Psalm  Book  should  be  used  together  with 
Ainsworth  to  supply  the  defects  of  it." 

It  is  significant  enough  of  the  "low  state  of  the 
musik  in  the  meetings  "  when  we  find  that  the  sim- 
ple tunes  written  in  Ainsworth's  Version  were  too 
difficult  for  the  colonists  to  sing.  To  such  a  condi- 
tion had  church-music  been  reduced  by  "  lining  the 
psalm  "  and  by  the  lack  of  musical  instruments  to 
guide  and  control  the  singers.  It  was  not  much  bet- 
ter in  old  England  ;  for  we  find  in  the  preface  of 
Rous'  Psalms  (which  were  published  in  1643  and  au- 


THE  PSALM-BOOK  OF  THE  PILGRIMS.  141 

thorized  to  be  used  in  the  English  Church)  references 
to  the  "  difficulty  of  Ainsworth's  tunes." 

Hood  says,  "  There  is  almost  a  certainty  that  no 
other  version  than  Ainsworth  was  ever  used  in  the 
colonies  until  the  New  England  Version  was  pub- 
lished. But  if  any  one  was  used  in  one  or  two  of 
the  churches  it  was  Sternhold  and  Hopkins."  I 
cannot  feel  convinced  of  this,  but  believe  that  both 
Ravenscroft's  and  Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  Versions 
were  used  at  first  in  many  of  the  Bay  settlements. 
Salem  church  had  a  peculiar  connection  in  its  origin 
with  the  church  of  Plymouth,  which  would  account, 
doubtless,  for  its  protracted  use  of  the  version  so 
loved  by  the  Pilgrims ;  but  the  Puritans  of  the 
Bay,  coming  directly .  from  England,  must  have 
brought  with  them  the  version  which  they  had  used 
in  England,  that  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins ;  and 
they  would  hardly  have  wished,  nor  would  it  have 
been  possible  for  them  to  acquire  speedily  in  the  new 
land  the  Ainsworth's  Version  used  by  the  Pilgrims 
from  Holland. 

The  second  edition  of  Ainsworth's  Version  was 
printed  in  1617,  a  third  in  1618;  the  fourth,  in  Lon- 
don in  1639,  was  a  folio;  and  the  sixth,  in  Amsterdam 
in  1644,  was  an  octavo.  A  little  24mo  copy  is  in  the 
Essex  Institute  in  Salem,  and  an  octavo  is  in  the 
Prince  Library,  now  in  the  custody  of  the  Public 
Library  of  the  City  of  Boston.  The  latter  copy  has 
a  note  in  it  written  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Prince: 
u  Plymouth,  May  1, 1732.  I  have  seen  an  edition  of 


142    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

this  version  of  1618 ;  and  this  version  was  sung  in 
Plymouth  Colony  and  1  suppose  in  the  rest  of  New 
England  'till  the  New  England  Version  was  printed." 

There  is  a  copy  of  the  first  edition  of  Ainsworth  in 
the  Bodleian  Library  and  one  in  the  library  of  Trinity 
College,  Dublin.  The  American  Antiquarian  Society 
and  the  Lenox  Library  are  the  only  public  libraries  in 
America  that  possess  copies,  so  far  as  I  know.  The 
one  in  the  library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Soci- 
ety was  presented  to  it  in  1815  by  the  Rev.  William 
Bentley  of  Salem,  Massachusetts,  to  whom  also  be- 
longed the  copy  of  the  Bay  Psalm  Book  now  in  the 
library  at  Worcester.  He  was  a  divine  and  a  biblio- 
phile and  an  antiquary,  but  there  also  ran  in  his  veins 
blood  of  warmer  flow.  During  the  war  of  1812,  when 
the  report  came,  in  meeting-time,  that  the  frigate  "  Con- 
stitution "  was  being  chased  into  Marblehead  harbor, 
the  loyal  parson  Bentley  locked  up  his  church,  and 
tucked  up  his  gown,  and  sallied  forth  with  his  whole 
flock  of  parishioners  to  march  to  Marblehead  with  the 
soldiers,  ready  to  "  fight  unto  death"  if  necessary. 
Being  short  and  fat,  and  the  mercury  standing  at 
eighty-five  degrees,  the  doctor's  physical  strength  gave 
out,  and  he  had  to  be  hoisted  up  astride  a  cannon 
to  ride  to  the  scene  of  conflict,  —  martial  in  spirit 
though  weak  in  the  legs. 

But  this  association  with  the  old  book  is  compara- 
tively of  our  own  day ;  and  the  most  pleasing  fancy 
which  the  "  psalm-book  of  Ainsworth  "  brings  to  my 
mind,  the  most  sacred  and  reverenced  thought,  is  of  a 


THE  PSALM  BOOK  OF  THE  PILGRIMS.  143 

far  more  remote,  a  more  peaceful  and  quiet  scene  ; 
though  men  of  warlike  blood  and  fighting  stock  were 
there  present  and  took  part  therein.  It  is  with  that 
Sabbath  Day  before  the  Landing  at  Plymouth  which 
was  spent  by  the  Pilgrims,  as  Mather  says,  "in  the 
devout  and  pious  exercises  of  a  sacred  rest."  And 
though  Matthew  Arnold  thought  that  the  Mayflower 
voyagers  would  have  been  intolerable  company  for 
Shakespeare  and  Virgil,  yet  in  that  quiet  day  of  de- 
vout prayer  and  praise  they  show  a  calm  religious 
peace  and  trust  that  is,  perhaps,  the  highest  spiritual 
type  of  "sweetness  and  light."  And  from  this  quaint 
old  book  their  lips  found  words  and  music  to  express 
in  song  their  pure  and  holy  faith. 


XII. 
THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK. 

IT  seems  most  proper  that  the  first  book  printed 
in  New  England  should  be  now  its  rarest  one,  and 
such  is  the  case.  It  was  also  meet  that  the  first  book 
published  by  the  Puritan  theocracy  should  be  a  psalm- 
book.  This  New  England  psalm-book,  being  printed 
by  the  colony  at  Massachusetts  Bay,  is  familiarly 
known  as  "  The  Bay  Psalm-Book,"  and  was  published 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  with  this  wording 
on  the  titlepage :  "  The  Whole  Book  of  Psalmes  Faith- 
fully Translated  into  English  Metre.  Whereunto  is 
prefixed  a  discourse  declaring  not  only  the  lawfullnes, 
but  also  the  necessity  of  the  Heavenly  Ordinance  of 
Singing  Psalmes  in  the  Churches  of  God. 

"  Coll.  III.  Let  the  word  of  God  dwell  plenteously 
in  you  in  all  wisdome,  teaching^  and  exhorting  one 
another  in  Psalmes,  Hi  nines,  and  spirituall  Songs, 
singing  to  the  Lord  with  grace  in  your  hearts. 

"  James  V.  If  any  be  afflicted,  let  him  pray  ;  and 
if  any  be  merry  let  him  sing  psalmes.  Imprinted 
1640." 

The  words  "  For  the  Use,  Edification,  and  Comfort 
of  the  Saints  in  Publick  and  Private  especially  in 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  145 

New  England,"  though  given  in  Thomas's  "  History 
of  Printing,"  Lowndes's  "Bibliographers  Manual," 
Hood's  "  History  of  Music  in  New  England,"  and 
many  reliable  books  of  reference,  as  part  of  the  cor- 
rect title,  were  in  fact  not  printed  upon  the  titlepage 
of  this  first  edition,  but  appeared  on  subsequent  ones. 
Mr.  Thomas,  at  the  time  he  wrote  his  history,  knew 
of  but  one  copy  of  the  first  edition ;  "  an  entire  copy 
except  the  title-page  is  now  in  the  possession  of  rev. 
inr.  Bentley  of  Salem."  The  titlepage  being  missing, 
he  probably  fell  into  the  error  of  copying  the  title  of 
a  later  edition,  and  other  cataloguers  and  manualists 
have  blindly  followed  him. 

There  were  in  1638  thirty  ministers  in  New  Eng- 
land, all  men  of  intelligence  and  education ;  and  to 
three  of  them,  Richard  Mather,  Thomas  Welde,  and 
John  Eliot  was  entrusted  the  literary  part  of  the 
pious  work.  They  managed  to  produce  one  of  the 
greatest  literary  curiosities  in  existence.  The  book 
was  printed  in  the  house  of  President  Dunster  of 
Harvard  College  upon  a  "  printery,"  or  printing- 
press,  which  had  cost  <£50,  and  was  the  gift  of  friends 
in  Holland  to  the  new  community  in  1638,  the  name- 
year  of  Harvard  College.  Governor  Winthrop  in  his 
journal  tells  us  that  the  first  sheet  printed  on  this 
press  was  the  Freeman's  Oath,  certainly  a  charac- 
teristic production  5  the  second  an  almanac  for  New 
England,  and  the  third,  "The  Bay  Psalm-Book." 
Some,  who  deem  an  almanac  a  book,  call  this  psalm- 
book  the  second  book  printed  in  British  America, 

10 


146    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

A  printer  named  Steeven  Daye  was  brought  over 
from  England  to  do  the  printing  on  this  new  press. 
Now  Steeven  must  have  been  given  entire  charge  of 
the  matter,  and  could  not  have  been  a  very  literate 
fellow  (as  we  know  positively  he  was  a  most  repre- 
hensible one),  or  the  three  reverend  versifiers  must 
have  been  most  uncommonly  careless  proof-readers, 
for  certainly  a  worse  piece  of  printer's  work  than  "  The 
Bay  Psalm  Book  "  could  hardly  have  been  struck  off. 
Diversity  and  grotesqueness  of  spelling  were  of  course 
to  be  expected,  and  paper  might  have  been  coarse  with- 
out reproof,  in  that  new  and  poor  country ;  but  the 
type  was  good  and  clear,  the  paper  strong  and  firm, 
and  with  ordinary  care  a  very  presentable  book  might 
have  been  issued.  The  punctuation  was  horrible. 
A  few  commas  and  periods  and  a  larger  number 
of  colons  were  "  pepered  and  salted  "  d  la  Timothy 
Dexter,  apparently  quite  by  chance,  among  the  words. 
Periods  were  placed  in  the  middle  of  sentences ;  words 
of  one  syllable  were  divided  by  hyphens ;  capitals  and 
italics  were  used  after  the  fashion  of  the  time,  appar 
ently  quite  at  random ;  and  inverted  letters  were 
common  enough.  The  pages  were  unnumbered,  and 
on  every  left-hand  page  the  word  "  Psalm "  in  the 
title  was  spelled  correctly,  while  on  the  right-hand 
page  it  is  uniformly  spelled  "  Psalme."  But  after 
all,  these  typographical  blemishes  might  be  forgiven  if 
the  substance,  the  psalms  themselves,  were  worthy  ; 
but  the  versification  was  certainly  the  most  villainous 
of  all  the  many  defects,  though  the  sense  was  so  con- 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  147 

fused  that  many  portions  were  unintelligible  save 
with  the  friendly  aid  of  the  prose  version  of  the  Bible ; 
and  the  grammatical  construction,  especially  in  the 
use  of  pronouns,  was  also  far  from  correct.  Such 
amazing  verses  as  these  may  be  found :  — 


"  And  sayd  He  would  not  them  waste  :  had  not 

Moses  stood  (whom  He  chose) 
'fore  him  i'  th  'breach  ;  to  turne  his  wrath 
lest  that  he  should  waste  those." 


Cotton  Mather,  in  his  "  Magnalia,"  gives  thus  the 
full  story  of  the  production  of  "The  Bay  Psalm- 
book":— 

"  About  the  year  1639,  the  New-English  reformers, 
considering  that  their  churches  enjoyed  the  other  ordi- 
nances of  Heaven  in  their  scriptural  purity  were  willing 
that  the  '  The  singing  of  Psalms '  should  be  restored  among 
them  unto  a  share  of  that  purity.  Though  they  blessed 
God  for  the  religious  endeavours  of  them  who  translated 
the  Psalms  into  the  meetre  usually  annexed  at  the  end  of 
the  Bible,  yet  they  beheld  in  the  translation  so  many 
detractions  from,  additions  to,  and  variations  of,  not  only 
the  text,  but  the  very  sense  of  the  psalmist,  that  it  was 
an  offense  unto  them.  Resolving  then  upon  a  new  trans- 
lation>  the  chief  divines  in  the  country  took  each  of  them 
a  portion  to  be  translated  ;  among  whom  were  Mr.  Welds 
and  Mr.  Eliot  of  Roxbury,  and  Mr.  Mather  of  Dorches- 
ter. These  like  the  rest  were  so  very  different  a  genius 
for  their  poetry  that  Mr.  Shephard,  of  Cambridge,  on  the 
occasion  addressed  them  to  this  purpose : 


148        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

You  Roxb'ry  poets  keep  clear  of  the  crime 

Of  missing  to  give  us  very  good  rhime. 

And  you  of  Dorchester,  your  verses  lengthen 

And  with  the  text's  own  words,  you  will  them  strengthen. 

The  Psalms  thus  turned  into  meetre  were  printed  at 
Cambridge,  in  the  year  1640.  But  afterwards  it  was 
thought  that  a  little  more  of  art  was  to  be  employed  upon 
them ;  and  for  that  cause  they  were  committed  unto  Mr. 
Dunster,  who  revised  and  refined  this  translation  ;  and 
(with  some  assistance  from  Mr.  Richard  Lyon  who  being 
sent  over  by  Sir  Henry  Mildmay  as  an  attendant  unto  his 
son,  then  a  student  at  Harvard  College,  now  resided  in 
Mr.  Dunster's  house  :)  he  brought  it  into  the  condition 
wherein  our  churches  have  since  used  it.  Now  though  I 
heartily  join  with  those  gentlemen  who  wish  that  the 
poetry  thereof  were  mended,  yet  I  must  confess,  that  the 
Psalms  have  never  yet  seen  a  translation  that  I  know  of 
nearer  to  the  Hebrew  original;  and  I  am  willing  to  re- 
ceive the  excuse  which  our  translators  themselves  do  offer 
us  when  they  say :  '  If  the  verses  are  not  always  so  ele- 
gant as  some  desire  or  expect,  let  them  consider  that 
God's  altar  needs  not  our  pollishings  ;  we  have  respected 
rather  a  plain  translation,  than  to  smooth  our  verses  with 
the  sweetness  of  any  paraphrase.  We  have  attended 
conscience  rather  than  elegance,  fidelity  rather  than  in- 
genuity, that  so  we  may  sing  in  Zion  the  Lord's  songs  of 
praise,  according  unto  his  own  will,  until  he  bid  us  enter 
into  our  Master's  joy  to  sing  eternal  hallelujahs.' ' 

I  have  never  liked  Cotton  Mather  so  well  as  after 
reading  this  calm  and  kindly  account  of  the  produc- 
tion of  "  The  Bay-Psalm-Book."  He  was  a  scholarly 


THE   BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  149 

man,  and  doubtless  felt  keenly  and  groaned  inwardly 
at  the  inelegance,  the  appalling  and  unscholaiiy  errors 
in  the  New  England  version;  and  yet  all  he  mildly 
said  was  that  "  it  was  thought  that  a  little  more  of 
art  was  to  be  employed  upon  them,"  and  that  he 
"  wishes  the  poetry  hereof  was  mended."  Such  jus- 
tice, such  self-repression,  such  fairness  make  me  al- 
most forgive  him  for  riding  around  the  scaffold  on 
which  his  fellow-clergyman  was  being  executed  for 
witchcraft,  and  urging  the  crowd  not  to  listen  to 
the  poor  martyr's  dying  words.  I  can  even  almost 
overlook  the  mysterious  fables,  the  outrageous 
yarns  which  he  imposed  upon  us  under  the  guise 
of  history. 

The  three  reverend  versifiers  who  turned  out  such 
questionable  poetry  are  known  to  have  been  writers 
of  clear,  scholarly,  and  vigorous  prose.  They  were 
all  graduated  at  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge,  the 
nursery  of  Puritans.  Mr.  Welde  soon  returned  to 
England  and  published  there  two  intelligent  tracts 
vindicating  the  purity  of  the  New  England  worship. 
Richard  Mather  was  the  general  prose-scribe  for  the 
community ;  he  drafted  the  "  Cambridge  Platform  " 
and  other  important  papers,  and  was  clear  and 
scholarly  enough  in  all  his  work  except  the  "  Bay 
Psalm-Book."  From  his  pen  came  the  tedious,  pro- 
lix preface  to  the  work ;  and  the  first  draft  of  it  in 
his  own  handwriting  is  preserved  in  the  Prince  Li- 
brary. The  other  co-worker  was  John  Eliot,  that 
glory  of  New  England  Puritanism,  the  apostle  to 


150   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

the  Indians.  His  name  heads  my  list  of  the  saints 
of  the  Puritan  calendar;  but  I  confess  that  when  I 
consider  his  work  in  "  The  Bay  Psalm-Book,"  I  have 
sad  misgivings  lest  the  hymns  which  he  wrote  and 
^published  in  the  Indian  language  may  not  have  proved 
to  the  poor  Massachusetts  Indians  all  that  our  loving 
and  venerating  fancy  has  painted  them.  It  is  said 
also  that  Francis  Quarles,  the  Puritan  author  of  "  Di- 
vine Emblems,"  sent  across  the  Atlantic  some  of  his 
metrical  versions  of  the  psalms  as  a  pious  contribu- 
tion to  the  new  version  of  the  new  church  in  the  new 
land. 

The  "  little  more  of  art "  which  was  bestowed  by 
the  improving  President  Dunster  left  the  psalms  still 
improvable,  as  may  be  seen  by  opening  at  random 
at  any  page  of  the  revised  editions.  Mr.  Lyon  con- 
ferred also  upon  the  New  England  church  the  inesti- 
mable boon  of  a  number  of  hymns  or  "  Scripture- 
Songs  placed  in  order  as  in  the  Bible."  They  were 
printed  in  that  order  from  the  third  until  at  least 
the  sixteenth  edition,  but  in  subsequent  editions  the 
hymns  were  all  placed  at  the  end  of  the  book  after 
the  psalms.  I  doubt  not  that  the  Puritan  youth,  de- 
barred of  merry  catches  a«id  roundelays,  found  keen 
delight  in  these  rather  astonishing  renditions  of  the 
songs  of  Solomon,  portions  of  Isaiah,  etc.  Those 
Scripture-Songs  should  be  read  quite  through  to  be 
fully  appreciated,  as  no  modern  Christian  could  be 
full  enough  of  grace  to  sing  them.  Here  is  a  portion 
of  the  song  of  Deborah  and  Barak :  — 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  151 

24.  Jael  the  Kenite  Hebers  wife 

'bove  women  blest  shall  be  : 
Above  the  women  in  the  tent 
a  blessed  one  is  she. 

25.  He  water  ask'd  :  she  gave  him  milk 

him  butter  forth  she  fetch'd 

26.  In  lordly  dish  :  then  to  the  nail 

she  forth  her  left  hand  stretched. 


Her  right  the  workman's  hammer  held 

and  Sisera  struck  dead  : 
She  pierced  and  struck  his  temple  through 

and  then  smote  off  his  head. 

27.  He  at  her  feet  bow'd,  fell,  lay  down 

he  at  her  feet  bow'd,  where 
He  fell  :  ev*n  where  he  bowed  down 
he  fell  destroyed  there. 

28.  Out  of  a  window  Sisera 

his  mother  looked  and  said 
The  lattess  through  in  coming  why 

so  long  his  chariot  staid  ? 
His  chariot  wheels  why  tarry  they  1 

29.  her  wise  dames,  answered 
Yea  she  turned  answer  to  herself 

30.  and  what  have  they  not  sped  ? 

31.  The  prey  by  poll  ;  a  maid  or  twain 

what  parted  have  not  they  1 
Have  they  not  parted,  Sisera, 

a  party-colour'd  prey 
A  party-colour'd  neildwork  prey 

of  neildwork  on  each  side 
That  *s  party-colour'd  meet  for  necks 

of  them  that  spoils  divide  ? 


152   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Our  Pilgrim  Fathers  accepted  these  absurd,  tauto- 
logical verses  gladly,  and  sang  them  gratefully ;  but 
we  know  the  spirit  of  poesy  could  never  have  existed 
in  them,  else  they  would  have  fought  hard  against 
abandoning  such  majestic  psalms  as  Sternhold's  — 

"  The  Lord  descended  from  above 
and  bow'd  the  heavens  hye 
And  underneath  his  feete  he  cast 
the  darkness  of  the  skye. 

"  On  cherubs  and  on  cherubinea 

full  royally  he  road 
And  on  the  winges  of  all  the  windes 
came  flying  all  abroad." 

They  gave  up  these  lines  of  simple  grandeur,  to 
which  they  were  accustomed,  for  such  wretched  verses 
as  these  of  the  New  England  version :  — 

9.    Likewise  the  heavens  he  do wne- bow'd 
and  he  descended,  &  there  wa8 
under  his  feet  a  gloomy  cloud 

10.  And  he  on  cherub  rode  and  flew  ; 

yea,  he  flew  on  the  wings  of  winde. 

11.  His  secret  place  hee  darkness  made 

his  covert  that  him  round  confinde. 

I  cannot  understand  why  they  did  not  sing  the 
psalms  of  David  just  as  they  were  printed  in  the 
English  Bible ;  it  would  certainly  be  quite  as  practi- 
cable as  to  sing  this  latter  selection. 

President  Dunster's  improving  hand  and  brain 
evolved  this  rendition  :  — 


THE   BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  153 

"Likewise  the  heavens  he  down-bow'd 

and  he  descended  :  also  there 
Was  at  his  feet  a  gloomy  cloud 

and  he  on  cherubs  rode  apace. 
Yea  on  the  wings  of  wind  he  flew 

he  darkness  made  his  secret  place 
His  covert  round  about  him  drew." 

Though  the  grotesque  wording  and  droll  errors  of 
these  old  psalm-books  can,  after  the  lapse  of  centuries, 
be  pointed  out  and  must  be  smiled  at,  there  is  after 
all  something  so  pathetic  in  the  thought  of  those 
good,  scholarly  old  New  England  saints,  hampered  by 
poverty,  in  dread  of  attack  of  Indians,  burdened  with 
hard  work,  harassed  by  "  eighty-two  pestilent  here- 
sies," still  laboring  faithfully  and  diligently  in  their 
strange  new  home  at  their  unsuited  work, — something 
so  pathetic,  so  grand,  so  truly  Christian,  that  when 
I  point  out  any  of  the  absurdities  or  failures  in  their 
work,  I  dread  lest  the  shades  of  Cotton,  of  Sewall, 
of  Mather,  of  Eliot,  brand  me  as  of  old,  "  in  capitall 
letters,"  as  «  AN  OPEN  AND  OBSTINATE  CON- 
TEMNER  OF  GOD'S  HOLY  ORDINANCES,"  or 
worse  still,  with  that  mysterious,  that  dread  name, 
"  A  WANTON  GOSPELLER." 

The  second  edition  of  the  "  New  England  Psalm- 
Book  "  was  published  in  1647  ;  the  one  copy  known 
to  exist  has  sold  for  four  hundred  and  thirty-five 
dollars.  The  third  edition  was  the  one  revised  by 
President  Dunster  and  Mr.  Lyon,  and  was  printed 
in  1650.  In  1691  the  unfortunate  book  was  again 
"  pollished  "  by  a  committee  of  ministers,  who  thus 


154        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 


altered  the  last  two  stanzas  of  the  Song  of  Deborah 
and  Barak :  — 


28.  Out  of  a  window  Sisera 

His  mother  look'd  and  said 
The  lattess  through  in  coming  why 

So  long  'a  chariot  staid  ? 
His  chariot- wheels  why  tarry  they  ? 

Her  ladies  wise  reply'd 

29.  Yea  to  herself  the  answer  made, 

30.  Have  they  not  speed  ?  she  cry'd. 

31 .  The  prey  to  each  a  maid  or  twain 

Divided  have  not  they  1 
To  Sisera  have  they  not  shar'd 

A  divers-colour'd  prey  1 
Of  divers-colour'd  needle-work 

Wrought  curious  on  each  side 
Of  various  colours  meet  for  necks 

Of  those  who  spoils  divide  ? 


Rev.  Elias  Nason  wittily  says  of  "  The  Bay  Psalm- 
Book,"  "  Welde,  Eliot,  and  Mather  mounted  the  res- 
tive steed  Pegasus,  Hebrew  psalter  in  hand,  and 
trotted  in  warm  haste  over  the  rough  roads  of  She- 
mitic  roots  and  metrical  psalmody.  Other  divines 
rode  behind,  and  after  cutting  and  slashing,  mend- 
ing and  patching,  twisting  and  turning,  finally  pro- 
duced what  must  ever  remain  the  most  unique 
specimen  of  poetical  tinkering  in  our  literature." 

Other  editions  quickly  followed  these  "  pollishings  " 
until,  in  1709,  sixteen  had  been  printed.  Mr.  Hood 
stated  that  at  least  seventy  editions  in  all  were 
brought  out.  Some  of  these  were  printed  in  Eng- 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  155 

land  and  Scotland,  in  exceedingly  fine  and  illegible 
print,  and  were  intended  to  be  bound  up  with  the 
Bible ;  and  occasionally  duodecimo  Bibles  were  sent 
from  Scotland  to  New  England  with  "  The  Bay  Psalm- 
Book  "  bound  at  the  back  part  of  the  book.  Strange 
as  it  may  seem,  the  poor,  halting  New  England  ver- 
sion was  used  in  some  of  the  English  dissenting 
congregations  and  Scotch  kirks,  instead  of  the 
smoother  verses  composed  in  England  for  the  Eng- 
lish churches. 

The  Reverend  Thomas  Prince,  after  two  years  of 
careful  work  thereon,  published  in  1758  a  revised 
edition  of  the  much-published  book,  and  it  was 
adopted  by  his  church,  the  Old  South,  of  Boston,  the 
week  previous  to  his  death.  It  was  used  by  his  con- 
gregation until  1786.  He  clung  closely  to  the  form 
of  the  old  editions,  changing  only  an  occasional  word. 
In  his  preface  Dr.  Prince  says  that  "  The  Bay  Psalm- 
Book  "  "  had  the  honor  of  being  the  first  book  printed 
in  North  America,  and  as  far  as  I  can  find,  in  this 
New  World."  We  have  fuller  means  of  information 
now-a-days  than  had  the  reverend  reviser,  and  we 
know  that  as  early  as  1535  a  book  called  "  The  Book 
of  St.  John  Climacus  or  The  Spiritual  Ladder "  had 
been  printed  in  the  Spanish  tongue,  in  Mexico ;  and 
no  less  than  one  hundred  and  sixteen  other  Spanish 
works  in  the  sixteenth  century,  as  the  "  Bibliografia 
Mexicana"  testifies. 

If  the  printing  of  all  these  various  editions  was 
poor,  and  the  diction  worse,  the  binding  certainly 


156        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

was  good  and  could  be  copied  in  modern  times  to 
much  advantage.  No  flimsy  cloth  or  pasteboard  cov- 
ers, no  weak  paper  backs,  no  ill-pasted  leaves,  no 
sham-work  of  any  kind  was  given;  securely  sewed, 
firmly  glued,  with  covers  of  good  strong  leather, 
parchment,  kid,  or  calfskin,  these  psalm-books  en- 
dured constant  daily  (not  weekly)  use  for  years,  for 
decades,  for  a  century,  and  are  still  whole  and  firm. 
They  were  carried  about  in  pockets,  in  saddle-bags, 
and  were  opened,  and  handled,  and  conned,  as  often 
as  were  the  Puritan  Bibles,  and  they  bore  the  usage 
well.  They  were  distinctively  characteristic  of  the 
unornamental,  sternly  pious,  eminently  honest,  and 
sturdily  useful  race  that  produced  them. 

Judge  Sewall  makes  frequent  mention  in  his  famous 
diary  of  "the  New  Psalm  Book."  He  bought  one 
"  bound  neatly  in  Kids  Leather "  for  "  8  shillings  & 
sixpence  "  and  gave  it  to  a  widow  whom  he  was  woo- 
ing. Rather  a  serious  lover's  gift,  but  characteristic 
of  the  giver,  and  not  so  gloomy  as  "Dr.  Mathers  Vials 
of  Wrath,"  "Dr.  Sibbs  Bowels,"  "Dr.  Preston's  Church 
Carriage,"  and  "  Dr.  Williard's  Fountains  opened,"  all 
of  which  he  likewise  presented  to  her. 

The  Judge  frequently  gave  a  copy  as  a  bridal  gift, 
after  singing  from  it  "  Myrrh  aloes,"  to  the  gloomy 
tune  of  Windsor,  at  the  wedding. 

8.  Myrrh  Aloes  and  Cassias  smell 

all  of  thy  garments  had 
Out  of  the  yvory  pallaces 

\vhereby  they  made  thee  glad  : 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  157 

9.  Amongst  thine  honourable  maids 
kings  daughters  present  were 
The  Queen  is  set  at  thy  right  hand 
in  fine  gold  of  Ophir. 

But  his  most  frequent  mention  of  the  "  new  psalm- 
book  "  is  in  his  "  Humbell  acknowledgement "  made 
to  God  of  the  "  great  comfort  and  merciful  kindness 
received  through  singing  of  His  Psalmes ; "  and  the 
pages  of  the  diary  bear  ample  testimony  that  what- 
ever the  book  may  appear  to  us  now,  it  was  to  the 
early  colonists  the  very  Word  of  God. 

As  years  passed  on,  however,  and  singing-schools 
multiplied,  it  became  much  desired,  and  even  impera- 
tive that  there  should  be  a  better  style  and  manner 
of  singing,  and  open  dissatisfaction  arose  with  "  The 
Bay  Psalm-Book;"  the  younger  members  of  the  con- 
gregations wished  to  adopt  the  new  and  smoother 
versions  of  Tate  and  Brady,  and  of  Watts.  Peti- 
tions were  frequently  made  in  the  churches  to  abolish 
the  century-used  book.  Here  is  an  opening  sentence 
of  one  church-letter  which  is  still  in  existence ;  it  was 
presented  to  the  ministers  and  elders  of  the  Roxbury 
church  September  llth,  1737,  and  was  signed  by 
many  of  the  church  members :  — 

"  The  New  England  Version  of  Psalms  however  useful 
it  may  formerly  have  been,  has  now  become  through  the 
natural  variableness  of  Language,  not  only  very  uncouth 
but  in  many  Places  unintelligible  ;  whereby  the  mind 
instead  of  being  Raised  and  spirited  in  Singing  The 
Praises  of  Almighty  God  and  thereby  being  prepared  to 


158       THE  SABBATH  IX  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Attend  to  other  Parts  of  Divine  Service  is  Damped 
and  made  Spiritless  in  the  Performance  of  the  Duty  at 
least  such  is  the  Tendency  of  the  use  of  that  Version," 
etc.,  etc. 

Great  controversy  arose  over  the  abolition  of  the 
accustomed  book,  and  church-quarrels  were  rife ;  but 
the  end  of  the  century  saw  the  dearly  loved  old  ver- 
sion consigned  to  desuetude,  never  again  to  be  opened, 
alas !  but  by  critical  or  inquisitive  readers. 

There  is  owned  by  the  American  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety, and  kept  carefully  locked  in  the  iron  safe  in  the 
building  of  that  Society  in  Worcester,  a  copy  of  the 
first  edition  of  "The  Bay  Psalm  Book."  It  is  a 
quarto  (not  octavo,  as  Thomas  described  it  in  his 
"History  of  Printing")  and  is  in  very  good  con- 
dition, save  that  the  titlepage  is  missing.  It  is  in 
the  original  light-colored,  time-stained  parchment 
binding,  and  contains  the  autograph  of  Stephen 
Sewall.  It  also  bears  on  the  inside  of  the  front 
cover  the  book-plate  of  Isaiah  Thomas,  and  at  the 
back,  in  the  veteran  printer's  clear  and  beautiful 
handwriting,  this  statement :  "  After  advertising  for 
another  copy  of  this  book  and  making  enquiry  in 
many  places  in  New  England  &c.  I  was  not  able  to- 
obtain  or -even  hear  of  another.  This  copy  is  there- 
fore invaluable  and  must  be  preserved  with  the 
greatest  care.  Isaiah  Thomas,  Sep.  20.  1820."  His 
"History  of  Printing,"  was  published  in  1810,  and 
the  Society  had  acquired  through  the  gift  of  "the 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  159 

rev.  mr.  Bentley  "  the  copy  which  Thomas  mentioned 
in  his  book. 

It  is  strange  that  Thomas  should  have  been  igno- 
rant of  the  existence  of  other  copies  of  the  first  edition 
of  "The  Bay  Psalm-Book,"  for  there  were  at  that  time 
six  copies  belonging  to  the  Prince  Library  in  the 
possession  of  the  Old  South  Church  of  Boston.  One 
would  fancy  that  the  Prince  Library  would  have  been 
one  of  his  first  objective  points  of  search,  save  that 
a  dense  cloud  of  indifference  had  overshadowed  that 
collection  for  so  long  a  time.  Five  of  those  copies 
remained  in  the  custody  of  the  deacons  and  pastor 
of  the  Old  South  Church  until  1860,  and  they  were  at 
one  time  all  deposited  in  the  Public  Library  of  the 
City  of  Boston.  Two  still  remain  in  that  suitable 
place  of  deposit;  they  are  almost  complete  in  pag- 
ing, but  are  in  modern  bindings.  The  other  three 
copies  were  surrendered  by  Lieut-Gov.  Samuel  Arm- 
strong (who,  as  one  of  the  deacons  of  the  Old 
South  Church,  had  joint  custody  of  the  Prince 
Library),  severally,  to  Mr.  Edward  Crowninshield  of 
Boston,  Dr.  Nathaniel  B.  Shurtleff  of  Boston,  and 
Mr.  George  Livermore  of  Cambridge.  Governor 
Armstrong  surrendered  these  three  books  in  con- 
sideration of  certain  modern  books  being  given  to 
the  Prince  Library,  and  of  the  modern  bindings  be- 
stowed on  the  two  other  copies;  which  seems  to  us 
hardly  a  brilliant  or  judicious  exchange. 

In  Dr.  Shurtleff  "The  Bay  Psalm-Book"  found  a 
congenial  and  loving  owner ;  and  under  his  careful 


160   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

superintendence  an  exact  reprint  was  published  in 
1862  in  the  Riverside  Press  at  Cambridge.  He  wrote 
for  it  a  preface.  It  was  published  by  subscription ; 
one  copy  on  India  paper,  fifteen  on  thick  paper,  and 
fifty  on  common  paper.  Copies  on  the  last  named 
paper  have  sold  readily  for  thirty  dollars  each.  All 
the  typographical  errors  of  the  original  were  carefully 
reproduced  in  this  reprint. 

At  Dr.  Shurtleff's  death,  his  "  Bay  Psalm-Book " 
was  catalogued  with  the  rest  of  his  library,  which 
was  to  be  sold  on  Dec.  2,  1875;  but  an  injunc- 
tion was  obtained  by  the  deacons  of  the  Old  South 
Church,  to  prevent  the  sale  of  the  old  psalm-book. 
They  were  rather  late  in  the  day  however,  to  try  to 
obtain  again  the  too  easily  parted  with  book,  and  the 
ownership  of  it  was  adjudged  to  the  estate.  The  book 
was  sold  Oct.  12,  1876,  at  the  Library  salesroom, 
Beacon  Street,  Boston,  for  one  thousand  and  fifty 
dollars.  It  is  now  in  the  library  of  Mrs.  John  Carter 
Brown,  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  Special  in- 
terest attaches  to  this  copy,  because  it  was  "  Richard 
Mather,  His  Book "  as  several  autographs  in  it 
testify ;  and  the  author's  own  copy  is  always  of  ex- 
tra value.  Cotton  Mather,  a  grandson  of  Richard, 
was  the  close  friend  of  the  Reverend  Thomas  Prince, 
who  founded  the  Prince  Library,  and  who  left  it  by 
will  to  the  Old  South  Church  in  1758.  Mr.  Prince's 
book-plate  is  on  the  reverse  of  the  titlepage  of  this 
copy  of  "  The  Bay  Psalm-Book,"  and  is  in  itself  a 
rarity.  It  reads  thus :  — 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  161 

"  This  Book  belongs  to 

The  New  England  Library 
Begun  to  be  collected  by  Thomas  Prince 
upon  his  ent'ring  Harvard-College  July  6 
1703,  and  was  given  by  said  Prince,  to 

remain  therein  forever." 

There  was  a  sixth  copy  of  "  The  Bay  Psalm-Book  " 
in  the  Prince  Library  in  1830  when  Dr.  Wisner  wrote 
his  four  sermons  on  the  Old  South  Church  of  Boston, 
—  a  copy  annotated  by  Dr.  Prince  and  used  by  him 
while  he  was  engaged  on  his  revision.  It  has  dis- 
appeared, together  with  many  other  important  books 
and  manuscripts  belonging  to  the  same  library.  The 
vicissitudes  through  which  this  most  valuable  collec- 
tion has  passed  —  lying  neglected  for  years  on  shelves, 
in  boxes,  and  in  barrels  in  the  steeple-room  of  the  Old 
South  Church,  depleted  to  use  for  lighting  fires,  in- 
jured by  British  soldiery,  but  injured  still  more  by 
the  neglect  and  indifference  of  its  custodians  —  are 
too  painful  to  contemplate  or  relate.  They  contribute 
to  the  scholarly  standing  and  honor  of  neither  pas- 
tors nor  congregations  during  those  years.  It  is 
enough  to  state,  however,  that  it  is  to  the  noble  and 
ill-requited  forethought  of  Dr.  Prince  that  we  owe  all 
but  three  of  the  copies  of  the  Bay  Psalm-Book  which 
are  now  known  to  be  in  existence. 

There  is  also  a  perfect  copy  of  the  first  edition  of 
the  old  book  in  the  Lenox  Library  in  New  York,  and 
the  manner  in  which  it  was  acquired  (and  also  some 

further   accounts   of   two  of  our   old   friends  of  the 

11 


162     THE  SABBATH  IN  PUKITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Prince  Library,  the  acquisitions  of  Messrs.  Crownin- 
shield  and  Livermore)  is  told  so  entertainingly  by 
Henry  Stevens,  of  Vermont,  in  his  charming  book, 
"  Recollections  of  Mr.  James  Lenox  "  that  it  is  best 
to  quote  his  account  in  full :  — 

"For  nearly  ten  years  Mr.  Lenox  had  entertained  a 
longing  desire  to  possess  a  perfect  copy  of  '  The  Bay 
Psalm  Book.'  He  gave  me  to  understand  that  if  an  op- 
portunity occurred  of  securing  a  copy  for  him  I  might 
go  as  far  as  one  hundred  guineas.  Accordingly  from 
1847  till  his  death,  six  years  later,  my  good  friend  Wil- 
liam Pickering  and  I  put  our  heads  and  book-hunting 
forces  together  to  run  down  this  rarity.  The  only  copy 
we  knew  of  on  this  side  the  Atlantic  was  a  spotless  one 
in  the  Bodleian  Library,  which  had  lain  there  unrecognized 
for  ages,  and  even  in  the  printed  catalogue  of  1843  its 
title  was  recorded  without  distinction  among  the  common 
herd  of  Psalms  in  verse.  I  had  handled  it  several  times 
with  great  reverence,  and  noted  its  many  peculiar  points, 
but,  as  agreed  with  Mr.  Pickering,  without  making  any 
sign  or  imparting  any  information  to  our  good  and  oblig- 
ing friend  Dr.  Bandinel,  Bodley's  Librarian.  We  thought 
that  when  we  had  secured  a  copy  for  ourselves,  it  would 
be  time  enough  to  acquaint  the  learned  Doctor  that  he  was 
entertaining  unawares  this  angel  of  the  New  World. 

"  Under  these  circumstances,  therefore,  only  an  expe- 
rienced collector  can  judge  of  my  surprise  and  inward 
satisfaction,  when  on  the  12  January,  1855,  at  Sotheby's, 
at  one  of  the  sales  of  Pickering's  stock,  after  untying 
parcel  after  parcel  to  see  what  I  might  chance  to  see, 
and  keeping  ahead  of  the  auctioneer,  Mr.  Wilkinson,  on 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  163 

resolving  to  prospect  in  one  parcel  more  before  he  over- 
took me,  my  eye  rested  for  an  instant  only  on  the  long- 
lost  Benjamin,  clean  and  unspotted.  I  instantly  closed 
the  parcel  (which  was  described  in  the  Catalogue  as  Lot 
4  531  Psalmes,  other  editions,  1630  to  1675  black  letter,  a 
parcel '  )  and  tightened  the  string  just  as  Alfred  came  to 
lay  it  on  the  table.  A  cool-blooded  coolness  seized  me, 
and  advancing  to  the  table  behind  Mr.  Lilly  I  quietly  bid, 
in  a  perfectly  natural  tone,  '  Sixpence,'  and  so  the  bids 
went  on  increasing  by  sixpence  until  half  a  crown  was 
reached,  and  Mr.  Lilly  had  loosened  the  string.  Taking 
up  this  very  volume  he  turned  to  me  and  remarked  that 
'  This  looks  a  rare  edition,  Mr.  Stevens,  don't  you  think 
so  ?  1  do  not  remember  having  seen  it  before,'  and  raised 
the  bid  to  five  shillings.  I  replied  that  I  had  little  doubt 
of  its  rarity  though  comparatively  a  late  edition  of  the 
Psalms,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  Mr.  Wilkinson  a  six- 
penny nod.  Thenceforth  a  '  spirited  competition '  arose 
between  Mr.  Lilly  and  myself,  until  finally  the  lot  was 
knocked  down  to  '  Stevens  '  for  nineteen  shillings.  I  then 
called  out  with  perhaps  more  energy  than  discretion,  <  De- 
livered ! '  On  pocketing  this  volume,  leaving  the  other 
seven  to  take  the  usual  course,  Mr.  Lilly  and  others  in- 
quired with  some  curiosity,  4  What  rarity  have  you  got 
now  ?  '  '  Oh,  nothing,  '  said  I,  l  but  the  first  English  book 
printed  in  America.'  There  was  a  pause  in  the  sale, 
while  all  had  a  good  look  at  the  little  stranger.  Some 
said  jocularly,  l  There  has  evidently  been  a  mistake ;  put 
up  the  lot  again.'  Mr.  Stevens,  with  the  book  again 
safely  in  his  pocket,  said,  « Nay,  if  Mr.  Pickering,  whose 
cost  mark  of  [3s]  did  not  recognize  the  prize  he  had  won, 
certainly  the  cataloguer  might  be  excused  for  throwing  it 


164     THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

away  into  the  hands  of  the  right  person  to  rescue,  appre- 
ciate, and  preserve  it.  I  am  now  fully  rewarded  for  my 
long  and  silent  hunt  of  seven  years.' 

"  On  reaching  Morley's  I  eagerly  collated  the  volume, 
and  at  first  found  it  right  with  all  the  usual  signatures 
correct.  The  leaves  were  not  paged  or  folioed.  But  on 
further  collation  I  missed  sundry  of  the  Psalms,  enough 
to  fill  four  leaves.  The  puzzle  was  finally  solved  when  it 
was  discovered  that  the  inexperienced  printer  had  marked 
the  sheet  with  the  signature  w  after  v,  which  is  very 
unusual. 

4 'This  was  a  very  disheartening  disappointment,  but  I 
held  my  tongue,  and  knowing  that  my  old  friend  and 
correspondent,  George  Livermore,  of  Cambridge,  N.  E., 
possessed  an  imperfect  copy,  which  he  and  Mr.  Crownin- 
shield,  after  the  noble  example  of  the  '  Lincoln  Nosegay,' 
had  won  from  the  Committee  of  the  4  Old  South '  together 
with  another  and  perfect  copy,  I  proposed  an  advanta- 
geous exchange  and  obtained  the  four  missing  leaves. 
Mr.  Crowninshield  strongly  advised  Mr.  Livermore  against 
parting  with  his  four  leaves,  because,  as  he  said,  4  They 
would  enable  Stevens  to  complete  his  copy  and  to  place 
it  in  the  library  of  Mr.  Lenox,  who  would  then  crow  over 
us  because  he  also  had  a  perfect  copy  of  "  The  Bay-Psalm 
Book." ' 

"  Having  thus  completed  my  copy  and  had  it  bound  by 
Francis  Bedford  in  his  best  style,  I  sent  it  to  Mr.  Lenox 
for  £80.  Five  years  later  I  bought  the  Crowninshield 
Library  in  Boston  for  $10,000,  mainly  to  obtain  his  per- 
fect copy  of  '  The  Bay  Psalm  Book,'  and  brought  the 
whole  library  to  London.  This  second  copy,  after  being 
held  several  months,  was  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Thomas 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  165 

Watts,  offered  to  the  British  Museum  for  £150.  The 
Keeper  of  the  Printed  Books,  however,  never  had  the 
courage  to  send  it  before  the  Trustees  for  approval  and 
payment ;  so  after  waiting  five  or  six  years  longer  the  vol- 
ume was  withdrawn,  bound  by  Bedford,  taken  to  America 
in  1868,  and  sold  to  Mr.  George  Brinley  for  150  guineas. 
At  the  Brinley  sale,  in  March,  1878,  it  was  bought  by 
Mr.  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  for  $1200,  or  more  than  three 
times  the  cost  of  my  first  copy  to  Mr.  Lenox." 

We  hear  the  expression  of  a  book  being  "  worth 
its  weight  in  gold."  "  The  Bay  Psalm-Book,"  in  the 
Library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  weighs 
nine  ounces,  hence  Mr.  Yanderbilt  paid  at  least  seven 
times  its  weight  in  gold  for  his  precious  book. 
Lowndes's  "  Bibliographers'  Manual"  says,  "  This  vol- 
ume, which  is  extremely  rare  and  would  at  an  auc- 
tion in  America  produce  from  four  to  six  thousand 
dollars,  is  familiarly  termed  "  The  Bay  Psalm  Book." 
This  must  have  been  intended  to  be  printed  four  to 
six  hundred  dollars,  and  is  about  as  correct  as  the 
remainder  of  the  description  in  that  manual. 

The  copy  which  is  spoken  of  by  Mr.  Stevens  as 
being  in  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford  was  once  the 
property  of  Bishop  Tanner,  the  famous  antiquary. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  there  are  seven  copies  at  least 
of  the  first  edition  of  "  The  Bay  Psalm-Book  "  now  in 
existence  in  America,  instead  of  "  five  or  at  the  most 
six,"  as  a  recent  writer  in  "  The  Magazine  of  Amer- 
ican History  "  states. 

And  of  all  the  manifold  later  editions  of  the  New 


166   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

England  Psalm-Book  comparatively  few  copies  now 
remain.  Occasionally  one  is  discovered  in  an  old 
church  library  or  seen  in  the  collection  of  an  anti- 
quary. It  is  usually  found  to  bear  on  its  titlepage 
the  name  of  its  early  owner,  and  often,  also,  in  a 
different  handwriting,  the  simple  record  and  date  of 
his  death.  Tender  little  memorial  postils  are  fre- 
quently written  on  the  margins  of  the  pages :  "  Sung 
this  the  day  Betty  was  baptized  "  —  "  This  Psalm  was 
sung  at  Mothers  Funeral"  —  "  Gods  Grace  help  me  to 
heed  this  word."  Sometimes  we  see  on  the  blank 
pages,  in  a  fine,  cramped  handwriting,  the  record  of 
the  births  and  deaths  of  an  entire  family.  More 
frequently  still  we  find  the  familiar  and  hackneyed 
verses  of  ancient  titlepage  lore,  such  as  are  usually 
seen  on  the  blank  leaves  of  old  Bibles.  This  script 
was  written  in  a  "  Bay  Psalm-Book  "  of  the  sixteenth 
edition,  and  with  the  characteristic  indifference  of  our 
New  England  forefathers  for  tiresome  repetition,  or 
possibly  with  their  disdain  of  novelty,  was  seen  on 
each  and  every  blank  page  of  the  book :  — 

"  Israel  Balch,  His  Book, 
God  give  him  Grace  theirin  to  look 
And  when  the  Bell  for  him  doth  toal 
May  God  have  mearcy  on  his  Sole." 

What  the  diction  lacked  in  variety  is  quite  made 
up,  however,  in  the  spelling,  which  was  painstakingly 
different  on  each  page. 

Another  Psalm-Book  bore,  inscribed  in  an  elegant, 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  167 

minute  handwriting,  these  lines,  which  were  probably 
intended  for  verse,  since  the  first  word  of  each  line 
commenced  with  a  capital  letter :  — 

"  Abednego  Prime  His  Book 
When  lie  withein  these  pages  looks 
May  he  find  Grace  to  sing  therein 
Seventeen  hundred  and  forty-seven." 

This  is  certainly  pretty  bad  poetry,  —  bad  enough  to 
be  worthy  a  place  in  "  The  Bay  Psalm  Book/'  —  but  is 
also  a  most  noble,  laudable,  and  necessary  aspira- 
tion ;  for  power  of  Grace  was  plainly  needed  to 
enable  Abednego  or  any  one  else  to  sing  from  those 
pages ;  and  our  pious  New  England  forefathers  must 
have  been  under  special  covenant  of  grace  when  they 
persevered  against  such  obstacles  and  under  such 
overwhelming  disadvantages  in  having  singing  in 
their  meetings. 

Another  copy  of  the  old  New  England  Psalm-Book 
was  thus  inscribed  :  — 

"  Elam  Noyes  His  Book 
You  children  of  the  name  of  Noyes 
Make  Jesus  Christ  your  only  choyse." 

The  early  members  of  the  Noyes  family  all  seemed 
to  be  exceedingly  and  properly  proud  of  this  rhyming 
couplet ;  it  formed  a  sort  of  patent  of  nobility.  They 
wrote  the  pious  injunction  to  their  descendants  in 
their  Psalm-Books  and  their  Bibles,  in  their  wills, 
their  letters ;  and  they,  with  the  greatest  unanimity 


168   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

of  feeling,  had  it  cut  upon  their  several  tombstones. 
It  was  their  own  family  motto,  —  their  totem,  so  to 
speak. 

In  a  New  England  Psalm-Book  in  the  possession  of 
the  American  Antiquarian  Society  there  is  written  in 
the  distinct  handwriting  of  Isaiah  Thomas  these 
explanatory  words :  — 

"  This  was  the  Pocket  Psalm-book  of  John  Symmons 
who  died  at  Salem  at  100  years.  He  was  born  at  North 
Salem  went  a-fishing  in  bis  youth  was  a  prisoner  with  the 
Indians  in  Nova  Scotia  afterwards  followed  his  labours  in 
a  Shipyard  and  till  great  old  age  laboured  upon  his  lands 
and  died  without  pain  Aet  100.  31  October,  1791.  He 
was  a  worthy  conscientious  and  well-informed  man  and 
agreeable  until  the  last  hour  of  his  life." 

I  can  think  of  no  pleasanter  tribute  to  be  given  to 
the  character  of  any  one  than  the  simple  words,  "  He 
was  agreeable  until  the  last  hour  of  his  life."  What 
share  in  the  production  and  maintenance  of  that 
amiable  and  enviable  condition  of  disposition  may  be 
attributed  to  the  ever-present  influence  of  the  Pocket 
Psalm-Book  cannot  be  known ;  but  the  constant  study 
of  the  holy  though  clumsy  verses  may  have  largely 
caused  that  sweet  agreeability  which  so  characterized 
John  Symmons. 

There  lies  now  before  me  a  copy  of  one  of  the  early 
editions  of  "  The  Bay  Psalm-Book."  As  I  open  the 
little  dingy  octavo  volume,  with  its  worn  and  torn 
edges,  I  am  conscious  of  that  distinctive,  penetrating, 


THE   BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  169 

old-book y  smell,  —  that  ancient,  that  fairly  obsolete  odor 
that  never  is  exhaled  save  from  some  old,  infrequently 
opened,  leather-bound  volume,  which  has  once  in  years 
far  past  been  much  used  and  handled.  A  book  which 
has  never  been  familiarly  used  and  loved  cannot  have 
quite  the  same  antique  perfume.  The  mouldering, 
rusty,  flaky  leather  comes  off  in  a  yellow-brown  pow- 
der on  my  fingers  as  I  take  up  the  book  ;  and  the 
cover  nearly  breaks  off  as  I  open  it,  though  with  ten- 
der, book-loving  usage.  The  leather,  though  strong 
and  honest,  has  rotted  or  disintegrated  until  it  has 
almost  fallen  into  dust.  Across  the  yellow,  ill-printed 
pages  there  runs,  zig-zagging  sideways  and  backwards 
crab-fashion  on  his  crooked  brown  legs,  one  of  those 
pigmy  book-spiders,  —  those  ugly  little  bibliophiles 
that  seem  flatter  even  than  the  close-pressed  pages 
that  form  their  home. 

Fair  Puritan  hands  once  held  this  dingy  little  book, 
honest  Puritan  eyes  studied  its  ill-expressed  words, 
and  sweet  Puritan  lips  sang  haltingly  but  lovingly 
from  its  pages.  This  was  "  Cicely  Morse  Her  Book  " 
in  the  year  1710,  and  bears  on  many  a  page  her  name 
and  the  simple  little  couplet :  — 

"  In  youth  I  praise 
And  walk  thy  ways." 

And  pretty  it  were  to  see  Cicely  in  her  praiseful 
and  godly-walking  youth,  as  she  stood  primly  clad  in 
her  sad- colored  gown  and  long  apron,  with  a  quoif 
or  ciffer  covering  her  smooth  hair,  and  a  red  whittle 


170   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND 

on  her  slender  shoulders,  a-singing  in  the  old  New 
England  meeting-house  through  the  long,  tedious 
psalms,  which  were  made  longer  and  more  tedious 
still  by  the  drawling  singing  and  the  deacons'  "  lin- 
ing." Truly  that  were  a  pretty  sight  for  our  eyes, 
and  for  other  eyes  than  ours,  without  doubt.  Staid 
Puritan  youth  may  have  glanced  soberly  across  the 
old  meeting-house  at  the  fair  girl  as  she  sung  the 
Song  of  Solomon,  with  its  ardent  wording,  without 
any  very  deep  thought  of  its  symbolic  meaning :  — 

"  Let  him  with  kisses  of  his  mouth 

be  pleased  me  to  kiss, 
Because  much  better  than  the  wine 

thy  loving-kindness  is. 
To  troops  of  horse  in  Pharoahs  coach, 

my  love,  I  thee  compare, 
Thy  neck  with  chains,  with  jewels  new, 

thy  cheeks  full  comely  are. 
Borders  of  gold  with  silver  studs 

for  thee  make  up  we  will, 
Whilst  that  the  king  at 's  table  sits 

my  spikenard  yields  her  smell. 

Like  as  of  myrrh  a  bundle  is 

my  well-belov'd  to  be, 
Through  all  the  night  betwixt  my  breasts 

his  lodging-place  shall  be ; 
My  love  as  in  Engedis  vines 

like  camphire-bunch  to  me, 
So  fair,  my  love,  thou  fair  thou  art 

thine  eyes  as  doves  eyes  be." 

Love  and^music  were  ever  close  companions ;  and 
the  singing-school  —  that  safety-valve  of  young  New 


THE  BAY  PSALM-BOOK.  171 

England  life  —  had  not  then  been  established  or  even 
thought  of,  and  I  doubt  not  many  a  warm  and  far 
from  Puritanical  love-glance  was  cast  from  the  "  doves- 
eyes  "  across  the  "  alley  "  of  the  old  meeting-house  at 
Cicely  as  she  sung. 

But  Cicely  was  not  young  when  she  last  used  the 
old  psalm-book.  She  may  have  been  stately  and 
prosperous  and  seated  in  the  dignified  "  foreseat ; " 
she  may  have  been  feeble  and  infirm  in  her  place 
in  the  "  Deaf  Pue ; "  and  she  may  have  been  care- 
worn and  sad,  tired  of  fighting  against  poverty,  worn 
with  dread  of  fierce  Indians,  weary  of  the  howls  of 
the  wolves  in  the  dense  forests  so  near,  and  home-sick 
and  longing  for  the  yonderland,  her  "  faire  Englishe 
home ; "  but  were  she  sad  or  careworn  or  heartsick, 
in  her  treasured  psalm-book  she  found  comfort, — 
comfort  in  the  halting  verses  as  well  as  in  the  no- 
ble thoughts  of  the  Psalmist.  And  the  glamour  of 
eternal,  sweet-voiced  youth  hangs  around  the  gentle 
Cicely,  through  the  power  of  the  inscription  in  the 
old  psalm-book,  — 

"  In  youth  I  praise 
And  walk  thy  ways,"  — 

the  romance  of  the  time  when  Cicely,  the  Puritan 
commonwealth,  the  whole  New  World  was  young. 


XIII. 

STERNHOLD  AND   HOPKINS'   VERSION   OF 
THE  PSALMS. 

THE  metrical  translation  of  the  Psalms  known  as 
Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  Version  was  doubtless  used  in 
the  public  worship  of  God  in  many  of  the  early  New 
England  settlements,  especially  those  of  the  Connec- 
ticut River  Valley,  though  the  old  register  of  the  town 
of  Ipswich  is  the  only  local  record  that  gives  positive 
proof  of  its  use  in  the  Puritan  church.  In  1693  an 
edition  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  was  printed  in  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts.  It  was  not  a  day  nor  a  land 
where  a  whole  edition  of  such  a  book  would  be  printed 
for  reference  or  comparison  only ;  and  to  thus  publish 
the  work  of  the  English  psalmists  in  the  very  teeth 
of  the  popularity  of  "  The  Bay  Ir'salm  Book  "  is  to  me 
a  proof  that  Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  Version  was  em- 
ployed far  more  extensively  in  the  colonial  churches 
and  homes  than  we  now  have  records  of,  and  than 
many  of  our  church  historians  now  fancy.  Certainly 
the  familiar  English  psalm-books  must  have  been 
brought  across  the  ocean  and  used  temporarily  until 
the  newly  landed  colonists  could  acquire  the  version 
of  Ainsworth  or  of  the  New  England  divines. 


STERNHOLD  AND  HOPKINS'  VERSION.  173 

An  everlasting  interest  attaches  to  this  metrical  ar- 
rangement of  the  Psalms,  to  Americans  as  well  as  to 
Englishmen,  because  it  was  the  earliest  to  be  adopted 
in  public  worship  in  England.  According  to  Strype, 
in  his  Memorial,  the  singing  of  psalms  was  allowed  in 
England  as  early  as  1548,  but  it  was  not  until  1562 
that  the  versified  psalms  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins 
were  appended  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Stern- 
hold  and  Hopkins'  Version  was  also  the  first  to  give 
all  the  psalms  of  David  in  English  verse  to  the  Eng- 
lish public. 

Very  little  is  known  of  the  authors  of  this  version. 
Sternhold  was  educated  at  Oxford ;  was  Groom  of  the 
Robes  to  Henry  VIII.  and  Edward  VI.,  was  a  "  bold 
and  busy  Calvinist,"  and  died  in  1549.  The  little 
of  interest  told  of  John  Hopkins  is  that  he  was  a 
minister  and  schoolmaster,  and  that  he  assisted  the 
work  of  Sternhold. 

The  full  reason  for  Sternhold's  pious  work  is  thus 
given  by  an  old  English  author,  Wood  :  "  Being  a 
most  zealous  reformer  and  a  very  strict  liver  he  be- 
came so  scandalyzed  at  the  loose  amorous  songs  used 
in  the  court  that  he  forsooth  turned  into  English 
metre  fifty-one  of  Davids  Psalms,  and  caused  musical 
notes  to  be  set  to  them,  thinking  thereby  that  the 
courtiers  would  sing  them  instead  of  their  sonnets ; 
but  they  did  not,  only  some  few  excepted."  The  pref- 
ace printed  in  the  book  stated  Sternhold's  wish  and 
intention  that  the  verses  should  be  sung  by  English- 
men, not  only  in  church,  but  "  moreover  in  private 


174    THF  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

houses  for  their  godly  solace  and  comfort;  laying 
apart  all  ungodly  Songs  &  Ballads  which  tend  only  to 
the  nourishment  of  vice  &  corrupting  of  youth." 

The  first  edition  contained  nineteen  psalms  only, 
which  were  all  versified  by  Sternhold.  It  was  pub- 
lished in  1548  or  1549,  under  this  title,  "  Certayn 
Psalmes  chosen  out  of  the  Psalter  of  David  and 
drawen  into  English  Metre  by  Thomas  Sternhold 
Groom  of  ye  Kynges  Maiesties  Roobes."  I  believe 
no  copy  of  this  edition  is  now  known  to  exist. 

The  praise  which  Sternhold  received  for  his  pious 
rhymes  had  the  same  effect  upon  him  as  did  simi- 
lar encomiums  upon  his  predecessor,  the  French 
psalm- writer  Marot,  —  it  encouraged  him  to  write 
more  psalm-verses. 

The  second  edition  was  printed  in  1549,  and  con- 
tained thirty-seven  psalms  by  Sternhold  and  seven  by 
Hopkins.  It  bore  this  title,  "Al  such  Psalmes  of 
David  as  Thomas  Sternehold  late  grome  of  his  maies- 
ties  robes  did  in  his  lyfe  tyme  drawe  into  English 
metre."  It  was  a  well-printed  book  and  copies  are 
still  preserved  in  the  British  Museum  and  the  Public 
Library  of  Cambridge,  England.  This  second  and  en- 
larged edition  was  dedicated,  in  a  four-page  preface,  to 
King  Edward  VI.,  and  a  pretty  story  is  told  of  the 
young  king's  interest  in  the  verses.  The  delicate  and 
gentle  boy  of  twelve  heard  Sternhold  when  "  singing 
them  to  his  organ  "  as  Strype  says,  and  wandered  in 
to  hear  the  music  and  listen  to  the  words.  So  great 
was  his  awakened  interest  in  the  sacred  songs  that 


STERNHOLD  AND  HOPKINS'  VERSION.  175 

Sternhold  resolved  to  write  in  verse  for  him  still 
further  of  the  psalms.  The  dedication  reads  :  "See- 
ing that  your  tender  and  godly  zeale  dooth  more  de- 
light in  the  holye  songs  of  veritie  than  in  any  fayned 
rymes  of  vanytie,  I  am  encouraged  to  travayle  further 
in  the  said  booke  of  Psalmes."  This  young  king  re- 
stored to  the  English  people  the  free  reading  of  the 
Bible,  which  his  wicked  father,  Henry  VIII.,  had  for- 
bidden them,  and  he  was  of  a  sincerely  religious  na- 
ture. He  also  was  a  music-lover,  and  encouraged  the 
art  as  much  as  his  short  life  and  troubled  reign 
permitted. 

Hopkins  also  wrote  a  preface  for  his  share  of  the 
work,  in  which  he  spoke  with  much  modesty  of  him- 
self and  much  praise  of  Sternhold.  He  said  his  own 
verses  were  not  "  in  any  parte  to  bee  compared  with 
his  [Sternhold's]  most  exquisite  dooynges."  He 
thinks,  however,  that  his  owne  are  "  fruitfull  though 
they  bee  not  fyne." 

The  third  edition,  in  1556,  contained  fifty-one 
psalms;  the  fourth,  in  1560,  had  sixty-seven  psalms; 
the  fifth,  in  1561,  increased  the  number  to  eighty, 
seven;  and  in  1562  or  1563  the  whole  book  of  psalms 
appeared.  Other  authors  had  some  share  in  this 
work :  Norton,  Whyttyngham  (a  Puritan  divine  who 
married  Calvin's  sister),  Kethe,  who  wrote  the  100th 
Psalm,  "  All  people  that  on  earth  do  dwell,"  which  is 
still  seen  in  some  of  our  hymn-books.  Of  all  these 
men,  sly  old  Thomas  Fuller  truthfully  and  quaintly 
said,  "  They  were  men  whose  piety  was  better  than 


176     THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

their  poetry,  and  they  had  drunk  more  of  Jordan  than 
of  Helicon?' 

For  over  one  hundred  years  from  the  first  publica- 
tion there  was  a  steady  outpour  of  editions  of  these 
Psalms.  Before  the  year  1600  there  were  seventy-four 
editions,  —  a  most  astonishing  number  for  the  times; 
and  from  1600  to  1700  two  hundred  and  thirty-five 
editions.  In  1868  six  hundred  and  one  editions  were 
known,  including  twenty-one  in  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury ;  and  doubtless  there  were  still  others  uncata- 
logued  and  forgotten.  Among  other  editions  this 
version  had  in  the  time  of  Charles  II.  two  in  short- 
hand, one  printed  by  "  Thos.  Cockerill  at  the  Three 
Legs  and  Bible  in  the  Poultry."  Two  copies  of  these 
editions  are  in  the  British  Museum.  They  are  tiny 
little  64mos,  of  which  half  a  dozen  could  be  laid  side 
by  side  on  the  palm  of  the  hand.  Sternhold  and  Hop- 
kins' Version  had  also  in  1694  the  honor  of  having 
arranged  for  it  a  Concordance. 

Upon  no  production  of  the  religious  Muse  in  the 
English  tongue  has  greater  diversity  of  criticism  been 
displayed  or  more  extraordinary  or  varied  judgment 
been  rendered  than  upon  Sternhold  and  Hopkins1 
Psalms.  A  world  of  testimony  could  be  adduced  to 
fortify  any  view  which  one  chose  to  take  of  them. 
At  the  time  of  their  early  publication  they  induced  a 
swarm  of  stinging  lampoons  and  sneering  comments, 
that  often  evince  most  plainly  that  a  difference  in 
religious  belief  or  scorn  for  an  opposing  sect  brought 
them  forth.  The  poetry  of  that  and  the  succeed- 


STERNHOLD  AND  HOPKINS'  VERSION,  177 

ing  century  abounds  in  allusions  to  them.  Phillips 
wrote :  — 

"  Singing  with  woful  noise 
Like  a  crack'd  saints  bell  jarring  in  the  steeple, 
Tom  Sternhold's  wretched  prick-song  for  the 

Another  poet,  a  courtier,  wrote  :  — 

"  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  had  great  qualms 
When  they  translated  David's  psalms." 

But  I  see  no  signs  of  qualmishness;  they  show  to 
me  rather  a  healthy  sturdiness  as  one  of  their  strong- 
est characteristics. 

Pope  at  a  later  day  wrote :  — 

"  Not  but  there  are  who  merit  other  palms 

Hopkins  and  Sternhold  glad  the  heart  with  psalms. 

The  boys  and  girls  whom  charity  maintains 
Implore  your  help  in  these  pathetic  strains. 

How  could  devotion  touch  the  country  pews 
Unless  the  gods  bestowed  a  proper  muse.0 

Wesley  sneered  at  this  version,  saying,  "  When  it  is 
seasonable  to  sing  praises  to  God  we  do  it,  not  in  the 
scandalous  doggrel  of  Hopkins  and  Sternhold,  but  in 
psalms  and  hymns  which  are  both  sense  and  poetry, 
such  as  would  provoke  a  critic  to  turn  Christian 
rather  than  a  Christian  to  turn  critic" 

The  edition  of  1562  was  printed  with  the  notes  of 
melodies  that  were  then  called  Church  Tunes.  They 
formed  the  basis  of  all  future  collections  of  psalm- 
music  for  over  a  century.  They  soon  were  published 

in  harmony  in  four  parts,  u  which  may  be  sung  to  all 

12 


178      THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

musical  instruinentes  set  forth  for  the  encrease  oi 
vertue  and  abolyshing  of  other  vayne  and  tryfling 
ballads."  In  1592  a  very  important  collection  of 
psalm-tunes  was  published  to  use  with  Sternhold  and 
Hopkins'  words.  It  is  called  "  The  Whole  Booke  of 
Psalmes :  with  their  wonted  tunes  as  they  are  sung  in 
Churches  composed  into  four  parts."  This  book  is 
noteworthy  because  in  it  the  tunes  are  for  the  first 
time  named  after  places,  as  is  still  the  custom.  The 
music  contained  square  or  oblong  notes  and  also 
lozenge-shaped  notes.  The  square  note  was  a  "  serny- 
brave,"  the  lozenge-shaped  note  was  a  "  pry  eke  "  or  a 
"  mynymme,"  and  "  when  there  is  a  prycke  by  the 
square  note,  that  prycke  is  half  as  much  as  the  note 
that  goeth  before." 

Music  at  that  time  was  said  to  be  pricked,  not 
printed,  —  the  word  being  derived  from  the  prick  or 
dot  which  formed  the  head  of  the  note.  Any  song 
which  was  printed  in  various  parts  was  called  a  prick - 
song,  to  distinguish  it  from  one  sung  extemporaneously 
or  by  ear.  The  word  prick-song  occurs  not  only  in 
all  the  musical  books,  but  in  the  literature  of  the  time, 
and  in  Shakespeare.  "  Tom  Sternhold's  "  songs  were 
entitled  to  be  called  prick-songs  because  they  had 
notes  of  music  printed  with  them.  Many  of  the  tunes 
in  this  collection  were  taken  from  the  Genevan  Psalter 
and  Luther's  Psalm-Book,  or  from  Marot  and  Beza's 
French  Book  of  Psalms.  Hence  they  were  irrever- 
ently called  "Genevan  Jiggs,"  and  "  Beza's  Ballets." 

There  is  much  difference  shown  in  the  wording  of 


STERNHOLD  AND  HOPKINS'  VERSION.  179 

these  various  editions  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins' 
Psalms.  The  earlier  ones  were  printed  as  Sternhold 
wrote  them ;  but  with  the  Genevan  editions  began 
great  and  astonishing  alterations.  Warton,  who  was 
no  lover  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  verses,  calling 
them  "  the  disgrace  of  sacred  poetry,"  said  of  these 
attempted  improvements,  with  vehemence,  that u  many 
stanzas  already  too  naked  and  weak  like  a  plain  old 
Gothic  edifice  stripped  of  its  signatures  of  antiquity, 
have  lost  that  little  and  almost  only  strength  and  sup- 
port which  they  derived  from  ancient  phrases." 
Other  old  critics  thought  that  Sternhold,  could  he 
return  to  life,  would  hardly  know  his  own  verses. 

This  is  Sternhold' s  rendering  of  the  Psalm  in  the 
edition  of  1549 :  — 

1.  The  heavens  &  the  fyrrnamente 

do  wondersly  declare 
The  glory  of  God  omnipotent 
his  workes  and  what  they  are. 

2.  Ech  daye  declareth  by  his  course 

an  other  daye  to  come 
And  by  the  night  we  know  lykwise 
a  nightly  course  to  run. 

3.  There  is  no  laguage  tong  or  speche 

where  theyr  sound  is  not  heard, 
In  al  the  earth  and  coastes  thereof 
theyr  knowledge  is  conferd. 

4.  In  them  the  lord  made  royally 

a  settle  for  the  sunne 
Where  lyke  a  Gyant  joyfully 
he  myght  his  iourney  runiie. 


180    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

5.    And  all  the  skye  from  ende  to  ende 

he  compast  round  about 
No  man  can  hyde  hym  from  his  heate 
but  he  wll  fyncl  hym  out. 

In  order  to  show  the  liberties  taken  with  the  text 
we  can  compare  with  it  the  Genevan  edition  printed 
in  1556.  The  second  verse  of  that  presumptuous  ren- 
dering reads,  — 

"  The  wonderous  works  of  God  appeare 

by  every  days  success 

The  nyghts  which  likewise  their  race  runne 
the  selfe  same  thinges  expresse." 

The  fourth,  — 

"  In  them  the  lorde  made  for  the  sunne 

a  place  of  great  renoune 
Who  like  a  bridegrome  rady-trimed 
doth  from  his  chamber  come." 

The  expression  "  rady-trimed,"  meaning  close- 
shaven,  is  often  instanced  as  one  of  the  inelegancies 
of  Sternhold,  but  he  surely  ought  not  to  be  held 
responsible  for  the  "  improvements  "  of  the  Genevan 
edition  published  after  his  death. 

The  Genevan  editors  also  invented  and  inserted  an 
extra  verse :  — 

"  And  as  a  valiant  champion 

who  for  to  get  a  prize. 
With  joye  cloth  hast  to  take  in  hande 
some  noble  enterprise." 

The  fifth  verse  is  thus  altered  :  — 


STERNHOLD  AND  HOPKINS'  VERSION.  181 

"  And  al  the  skye  from  ende  to  ende 

he  compasseth  about, 
Nothing  can  hyde  it  from  his  heate 
but  he  wil  finde  it  out." 

I  cannot  express  the  indignation  with  which  I  read 
these  belittling  and  weakening  alterations  and  inter- 
polations ;  they  are  so  unjust  and  so  degrading  to  the 
reputation  of  Sternhold.  It  seems  worse  than  forgery 
—  worse  than  piracy ;  for  instead  of  stealing  from  the 
defenceless  dead  poet,  it  foists  upon  him  a  spurious 
and  degrading  progeny ;  there  is  no  word  to  express 
this  tinkering  libellous  literary  crime. 

Cromwell  had  a  prime  favorite  among  these  psalms ; 
it  was  the  one  hundred  and  ninth  and  is  known  as  the 
"  cursing  psalm."  Here  are  a  few  lines  from  it :  — 

As  he  did  cursing  love,  it  shall 

betide  unto  him  so, 
And  as  he  did  not  blessing  love 

it  shall  be  farre  him  fro, 
As  he  with  cursing  clad  himselfe 

so  it  like  water  shall 
Into  his  bowels  and  like  oyl 

Into  his  bones  befall. 
As  garments  let  it  be  to  him 

to  cover  him  for  aye 
And  as  a  girdle  wherewith  he 

may  girded  be  alway." 

Another  authority  gives  the  "  cursing  psalm  "  as  the 
nineteenth  of  King  James's  version ;  but  there  is  noth- 
ing in  "  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,"  &c. 
to  justify  the  nickname  of  "  cursing." 


182        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

It  is  said  when  the  tyrannical  ruler  Andros  visited 
New  Haven  and  attended  church  there  that  (Stern- 
hold  and  Hopkins'  Version  being  used)  the  fearless 
minister  very  inhospitably  gave  out  the  fifty-second 
psalm  to  be  sung.  The  angry  governor,  who  took  it 
as  a  direct  insult,  had  to  listen  to  the  lining  and  sing- 
ing of  these  words,  and  I  have  no  doubt  they  were 
roared  out  with  a  lusty  will :  — 

1.  Why  dost  thou  tyrant  boast  thyself 

thy  wicked  deeds  to  praise 
Dost  thou  not  know  there  is  a  God 
whose  mercies  last  alwaies  ? 

2.  Why  doth  thy  mind  yet  still  deuise 

such  wisked  wiles  to  warp  ? 
Thy  tongue  untrue,  in  forging  lies 
is  like  a  razer  sharp. 


4      Thou  dost  delight  in  fraude  &  guilt 

in  mischief  bloude  and  wrong : 
Thy  lips  have  learned  the  nattering  stile 
O  false  deceitful  tongue. 

5.  Therefore  shall  God  for  eye  confounde 

and  pluck  thee  from  thy  place. 
Thy  seed  and  root  from  out  the  grounds 
and  so  shall  thee  deface  ; 

6.  The  just  when  they  behold  thy  fall 

with  feare  will  praise  the  Lord : 
And  in  reproach  of  thee  withall 
cry  out  with  one  accord. 

When  the  unhappy  King  Charles  fled  from  Oxford 
to  a  camp  of  troops  he  also  was  insulted  by  having 


STEKNHOLD  AND  HOPKINS'  VERSION.  183 

the  same  psalm  given  out  in  his  presence  by  the  boor- 
ish chaplain  of  the  troops.  After  the  cruel  words 
were  ended  the  heartsick  king  rose  and  asked  the 
soldiers  to  sing  the  fifty-sixth  psalm.  Whenever  I 
read  the  beautiful  and  pathetic  words,  as  peculiarly 
appropriate  as  if  they  had  been  written  for  that  occa- 
sion only,  I  can  see  it  all  before  me,  —  the  great 
camp,  the  angry  minister,  the  wretched  but  truly 
royal  king ;  and  I  can  hear  the  simple  and  noble  song 
as  it  pours  from  the  lips  of  hundreds  of  rude  soldiers : 

1.  Have  mercy  Lord  on  mee  I  pray 

for  man  would  mee  devour. 

He  fighteth  with  me  day  by  day 

and  troubleth  me  each  hour. 

2.  Mine  enemies  daily  enterprise 

to  swallow  mee  outright 
To  fight  against  me  many  rise 
0  thou  most  high  of  might 


5.  What  things  I  either  did  or  spake 

they  wrest  them  at  thier  wil : 
And  all  the  councel  that  they  take 
is  how  to  work  me  il. 

6.  They  all  consent  themselves  to  hide 

close  watch  for  me  to  lay  : 
They  spie  my  pathes,  and  snares  have  layd 
to  take  my  life  away. 

7.  Shall  they  thus  scape  on  mischief  set, 

thou  God  on  them  wilt  frowne  : 
For  in  his  wrath  he  will  not  let 
to  throw  whole  kingdomes  downe. 


184        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

It  would  perhaps  be  neither  just  nor  conducive  to 
proper  judgment  to  gather  only  a  florilege  of  noble 
verses  from  Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  Version  and 
point  out  none  of  the  "weedy-trophies,"  the  quaint 
and  even  uncouth  lines  which  disfigure  the  work. 
We  must,  however,  in  considering  and  judging  them, 
remember  that  many  words  and  even  phrases  which 
at  present  seem  rather  ludicrous  or  undignified  had, 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  significations  which  have 
now  become  obsolete,  and  which  were  then  neither 
vulgar  nor  unpoetical.  I  also  have  been  forced  to  take 
my  selections  from  a  copy  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins 
printed  in  1599,  and  bound  up  with  a  "  Breeches 
Bible;"  for  I  have  access  to  no  earlier  edition.  Stern- 
hold  and  Hopkins  themselves  may  not  be  in  truth 
responsible  for  many  of  the  crudities.  Hopkins,  in 
his  rendition  of  the  12th  verse  of  the  seventy-fourth 
Psalm,  thus  addresses  the  Deity  :  — 

"  Why  doost  withdraw  thy  hand  abacke 

and  hide  it  in  thy  lappe  ? 
O  pluck  it  out  and  bee  not  slacke 
to  give  thy  foes  a  rap." 

"Rap"  may  have  meant  a  heavier,  a  mightier  blow 
then  than  it  does  now-a-days. 

Here  is  another  curious  verse  from  the  seventieth 
psalm,  — 

"  Confounde  them  that  apply 

and  seeke  to  make  my  shame 
And  at  my  harme  doe  laugh  &  crye 
So  So  there  goeth  the  game." 


STERNHOLD  AND  HOPKINS'   VERSION.  185 

The  sixth  verse  of  the  fifty-eighth  psalm  is  rendered 
thus :  — 

"  0  God  breake  thou  thier  teeth  at  once 

within  thier  mouthes  throughout ; 
The  tuskes  that  in  thier  great  jawbones 
like  Lions  whelpes  hang  out." 

Another  verse  reads  thus :  — 

"  The  earth  did  quake,  the  raine  pourde  down 

Heard  men  great  claps  of  thunder 
And  Mount  Sinai  shooke  in  such  state 
As  it  would  cleeve  in  sunder." 

One  verse  of  the  thirty-fifth  psalm  reads  thus :  — 

"  The  belly-gods  and  flattering  traine 

that  all  good  things  deride 
At  me  doe  grin  with  greate  disdaine 

and  pluck  thier  mouths  aside. 
Lord  when  wilt  thou  amend  this  geare 

why  dost  thou  stay  &  pause? 
0  rid  my  soul,  my  onely  deare, 

out  of  these  Lions  clawes." 

The  word  tush  occurs  frequently  and  quaintly :  "  Tush 
I  an  sure  to  fail ; "  "  Tush  God  forgetteth  this." 

"  And  with  a  blast  doth  puff  against 

such  as  would  him  correct 
Tush  Tush  saith  he  I  have  no  dread." 

Here  are  some  of  the  curious  expressions  used :  — 

"  Though  gripes  of  grief  and  pangs  full  sore 
shall  lodge  with  us  all  night." 


186   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

"  For  why  their  hearts  were  nothing  lent 
to  Him  nor  to  His  trade." 

"  Our  soul  in  God  hath  joy  and  game." 

"  They  are  so  fed  that  even  for  fat 
thier  eyes  oft-times  out  start." 

"  They  grin  they  mow  they  nod  thier  heads." 

"  While  they  have  war  within  thier  hearts." 
as  butter  are  thier  words." 

"  Divide  them  Lord  &  from  them  pul 
thier  devilish  double-tongue." 

"  My  silly  soul  uptake." 

"  And  rained  down  Manna  for  them  to  eat 
a  food  of  mickle- wonder." 

"  For  joy  I  have  both  gaped  &  breathed." 

But  it  is  useless  to  multiply  these  selections,  which, 
viewed  individually,  are  certainly  absurd  and  inele- 
gant. They  often  indicate,  however,  the  exact  thought 
of  the  Psalmist,  and  are  as  well  expressed  as  the 
desire  to  be  literal  as  well  as  poetic  will  permit  them 
to  be.  Sternhold's  verses  compare  quite  favorably, 
when  looked  at  either  as  a  whole  or  with  regard  to 
individual  lines,  with  those  of  other  poets  of  his  day, 
for  Chaucer  was  the  only  great  poet  who  preceded 
him. 

I  must  acknowledge  quite  frankly  in  the  face  of 
critics  of  both  this  and  the  past  century  that  I  always 


STERNHOLD  AND  HOPKINS'  VERSION.  187 

read  Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  Psalms  with  a  delight,  a 
satisfaction  that  I  can  hardly  give  reasons  for.  Many 
of  the  renderings,  though  unmelodious  and  uneven, 
have  a  rough  vigor  and  a  sweeping  swing  that  is  to 
me  wonderfully  impressive,  far  more  so  than  many  of 
the  elegant  and  polished  methods  of  modern  versifiers. 
And  they  are  so  thoroughly  antique,  so  devoid  of  any 
resemblance  to  modern  poems,  that  I  love  them  for 
their  penetrating  savor  of  the  olden  times ;  and  they 
seem  no  more  to  be  compared  and  contrasted  with 
modern  verses  than  should  an  old  castle  tower  be 
compared  with  a  fine  new  city  house.  We  prefer 
the  latter  for  a  habitation,  it  is  infinitely  better  in 
every  way,  but  we  can  admire  also  the  rough  grandeur 
of  the  old  ruin. 


XIV. 
OTHER   OLD  PSALM-BOOKS. 

THERE  are  occasionally  found  in  New  England  on 
the  shelves  of  old  libraries,  in  the  collections  of  anti- 
quaries, or  in  the  attics  of  old  farm-houses,  hidden  in 
ancient  hair-trunks  or  painted  sea-chests  or  among  a 
pile  of  dusty  books  in  a  barrel,  —  there  are  found 
dingy,  mouldy,  tattered  psalm-books  of  other  versions 
than  the  ones  which  we  know  were  commonly  used  in 
the  New  England  churches.  Perhaps  these  books  were 
never  employed  in  public  worship  in  the  new  land ; 
they  may  have  been  brought  over  by  some  colonist,  in 
affectionate  remembrance  of  the  church  of  his  youth, 
and  sung  from  only  with  tender  reminiscent  longing 
in  his  own  home.  But  when  groups  of  settlers  who 
were  neighbors  and  friends  in  their  old  homes  came 
to  America  and  formed  little  segregated  communities 
by  themselves,  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  sung  for  a 
time  from  the  psalm-books  that  they  brought  with 
them. 

A  rare  copy  is  sometimes  seen  of  Marot  and  Beza's 
French  Psalm-book,  brought  to  America  doubtless  by 
French  Huguenot  settlers,  and  used  by  them  until 
(and  perhaps  after)  the  owners  had  learned  the  new 


OTHER  OLD  PSALM-BOOKS.  189 

tongue.  Some  of  the  Huguenots  became  members  of 
the  Puritan  churches  in  America,  others  were  Episco- 
palians. In  Boston  the  Faneuils,  Baudoins,  Bouti- 
neaus,  Sigoorneys,  and  Johannots  were  all  Huguenots, 
and  attended  the  little  brick  church  built  on  School 
Street  in  1704,  which  was  afterwards  occupied  by  the 
Twelfth  Congregational  Society  of  Boston,  and  iri 
1788  became  a  Roman  Catholic  church. 

The  pocket  psalm-book  of  Gabriel  Bernon,  the 
builder  of  the  old  French  Fort  at  Oxford,  is  one  of 
Marot  and  Beza's  Version,  and  is  still  preserved  and 
owned  by  one  of  his  descendants ;  other  New  England 
families  of  French  lineage  cherish  as  precious  relics 
the  French  psalm-books  of  their  Huguenot  ancestors. 
There  has  been  in  France  no  such  incessant  produc- 
tion of  new  metrical  versions  of  the  psalms  as  in 
England.  From  the  time  of  the  publication  of  the 
first  versified  psalms  in  1540,  through  nearly  three 
centuries  the  psalm-book  of  all  French  Protestants 
has  been  that  of  Marot  and  Beza.  This  French  ver- 
sion of  the  psalms  is  of  special  interest  to  all  thought- 
ful students  of  the  history  of  Protestantism,  because 
it  was  the  first  metrical  translation  of  the  psalms  ever 
sung  and  used  by  the  people ;  and  it  was  without  doubt 
one  of  the  most  powerful  influences  that  assisted 
in  the  religious  awakening  of  the  Reformation. 

Clement  Marot  was  the  "  Valet  of  the  Bed-chamber 
to  King  Francis  I.,"  and  was  one  of  the  greatest 
French  poets  of  his  time ;  in  fact,  he  gave  his  name 
tp  a  new  school  of  poetry,  —  "  Marotique."  He  had 


190    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

tried  his  hand  at  an  immense  variety  of  profane  verse, 
he  had  written  ballades,  chansons,  pastourelles,  vers 
Equivoques,  eclogues,  laments,  complaints,  epitaphs, 
chants-royals,  blasons,  contreblasons,  dizains,  huitains, 
envois;  he  had  been,  Warton  says,  "the  inventor  of 
the  rondeau  and  the  restorer  of  the  madrigal ; "  and 
yet,  in  spite  of  his  well-known  ingenuity  and  versatil- 
ity, it  occasioned  much  surprise  and  even  amusement 
when  it  was  known  that  the  gay  poet  had  written 
psalm-songs  and  proposed  to  substitute  them  for  the 
love-songs  of  the  French  court.  I  doubt  if  Marot 
thought  very  deeply  of  the  religious  influence  of  his 
new  songs,  in  spite  of  Mr.  Morley's  belief  in  the  ver- 
sifier's serious  intent.  He  was  doubtless  interested 
and  perhaps  somewhat  infected  by  "  Lutheranisme," 
though  perhaps  he  was  more  of  a  free-thinker  than  a 
Protestant.  He  himself  said  of  his  faith  :  — 

"  I  am  not  a  Lutherist 
Nor  Zuinglian  and  less  Anabaptist, 
I  ain  of  God  through  his  son  Jesus  Christ. 
I  am  one  who*has  many  works  devised 
From  which  none  could  extract  a  single  line 
Opposing  itself  to  the  law  divine." 


And  again : 


'  Luther  did  not  come  down  from  heaven  for  me 
Luther  was  not  nailed  to  the  cross  to  be 
My  Saviour  ;  for  my  sins  to  suffer  shame, 
And  I  was  not  baptized  in  Luther's  name. 
The  name  I  was  baptized  in  sounds  so  sweet 
That  at  the  sound  of  it,  what  we  entreat 
The  Eternal  Father  gives." 


OTHER  OLD  PSALM-BOOKS.  191 

In  the  year  1540,  at  the  instigation  of  King  Francis, 
Marot  presented  a  manuscript  copy  of  his  thirty  new 
psalm-songs  to  Charles  V.,  king  of  Spain,  receiving 
therefor  two  hundred  gold  doubloons.  Francis  en- 
couraged him  by  further  gifts,  and  so  praised  his 
work  that  the  author  soon  published  the  thirty  in  a 
book  which  he  dedicated  to  the  king ;  and  to  which 
he  also  prefixed  a  metrical  address  to  the  ladies  of 
France,  bidding  these  fair  dames  to  place  their 

"  doigts  sur  les  espinettes 
Pour  dire  sainctes  chansonnettes." 

These  "  sainctes  chansonnettes "  became  at  once  the 
rage ;  courtiers  and  princes,  lords  and  ladies,  ever 
ready  for  some  new  excitement,  seized  at  once  upon 
the  novel  psalm-songs,  and  having  no  special  or 
serious  music  for  them,  cheerfully  sang  the  sacred 
words  to  the  ballad-tunes  of  the  times,  and  to  their 
gailliards  and  measures,  without  apparently  any  very 
deep  thought  of  their  religious  meaning.  Disraeli 
says  that  each  of  the  royal  family  and  each  nobleman 
chose  for  his  favorite  song  a  psalm  expressive  of  his 
own  feeling  or  sentiments.  The  Dauphin,  as  became 
a  brave  huntsman,  chose 

"  Ainsi  qu'on  vit  le  cerf  bruyre," 
"  As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water-brook," 

and  he  gayly  and  noisily  sang  it  when  he  went  to 
the  chase.  The  Queen  chose 


192        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND 

"  Ne  vueilles  pas,  6  sire, 
Me  reprendre  en  ton  ire." 

"  Rebuke  me  not  in  thine  indignation.* 
Antony,  king  of  Navarre,  sung 

"  Revenge  moy  prens  la  querelle," 

"  Stand  up,  O  Lord  !  to  revenge  my  quarrel," 

to  the  air  of  a  dance  of  Poitou.  Diane  de  Poictiera 
chose 

"  Du  fond  de  ma  pense'e." 

"  From  the  depth  of  my  heart." 

But  when  from  interest  in  her  psalm-song  she  wished 
to  further  read  and  study  the  Bible,  she  was  warned 
from  the  danger  with  horror  by  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine.  This  religious  awakening  and  inquiry  was 
of  course  deprecated  and  dreaded  by  the  Romish 
Church ;  to  the  Sorbonne  all  this  rage  for  psalm- 
singing  was  alarming  enough.  What  right  had  the 
people  to  sing  God's  word,  "  I  will  bless  the  Lord  at 
all  times,  His  praise  shall  be  continually  in  my 
mouth"  ?  The  new  psalm-songs  were  soon  added  to 
the  list  of  "  Heretical  Books "  forbidden  by  the 
Church,  and  Marot  fled  to  Geneva  in  1543.  He  had 
ere  this  been  under  ban  of  the  Church,  even  under 
condemnation  of  death  ;  had  been  proclaimed  a  heretic 
at  all  the  cross-ways  throughout  the  kingdom,  and 
had  been  imprisoned.  But  he  had  been  too  good  a 
poet  and  courtier  to  be  lost,  and  the  king  had  then 
interested  himself  and  obtained  the  release  of  the 


OTHER  OLD  PSALM-BOOKS  193 

versatile  song  writer.  The  fickle  king  abandoned  for 
a  second  time  the  psalm  versifier,  who  never  again 
returned  to  France. 

The  austere  and  far-seeing  Calvin  at  once  adopted 
Marot's  version  of  the  Psalrns,  now  enlarged  to  the 
number  of  fifty,  and  added  them  to  the  Genevan  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  —  recommending  however  that  they 
be  sung  with  the  grave  and  suitable  strains  written 
for  them  by  Guillaume  Franc. 

The  collection  was  completed  with  the  assistance  of 
Theodore  Beza,  the  great  theologian,  and  the  demand 
for  the  books  was  so  great  that  the  printers  could  not 
supply  them  quickly  enough  Ten  thousand  copies 
were  sold  at  once,  —  a  vast  number  for  the  times. 

But  Marot  was  not  happy  in  Geneva  with  Calvin 
and  the  Calvinists,  as  we  can  well  understand.  Beza, 
in  his  "  History  of  the  French  Reformed  Churches  " 
said,  "  He  (Marot)  had  always  been  bred  up  in  a  very 
bad  school,  and  could  not  live  in  subjection  to  the 
reformation  of  the  Gospel,  and  therefore  went  and 
spent  the  rest  of  his  days  in  Piedmont,  which  was 
then  in  the  possession  of  the  king,  where  he  lived  in 
some  security  under  the  favor  of  the  governor."  He 
lived  less  than  a  year,  however,  dying  in  1544. 

These  psalms  of  Marot's  passed  through  a  great 
number  and  variety  of  editions.  In  addition  to  the 
Genevan  publications,  an  immense  number  were 
printed  in  England.  Nearly  all  the  early  editions 
were  elegant  books  ;  carefully  printed  on  rich  paper, 
beautifully  bound  in  rich  moroccos  and  leathers,  often 


194        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND 

emblazoned  with  gold  on  the  covers,  and  with  corners 
and  clasps  of  precious  metals,  —  they  show  the  wealth 
and  fashion  of  the  owners.  When,  however,  it  came 
to  be  held  an  infallible  sign  of  "  Lutheranisme  "  to  be 
a  singer  of  psalms,  simpler  and  cheaper  bindings 
appear;  hence  the  dress  of  the  French  Psalm-Book 
found  in  New  England  is  often  dull  enough,  but 
invariably  firm  and  substantial. 

These  psalms  of  Marot's  are  written  in  a  great 
variety  of  song-measures,  which  seem  scarcely  as 
solemn  and  religious  as  the  more  dignified  and  even 
metres  used  by  the  early  English  writers.  Some  are 
graceful  and  smooth,  however,  and  are  canorous 
though  never  sonorous.  They  are  pleasing  to  read 
with  their  quaint  old  spelling  and  lettering. 

In  the  old  Sigourney  psalm-book  the  nineteenth 
psalm  was  thus  rendered  :  — 

"  Les  cieux  en  chaque  lieu 
La  puissance  de  Dieu 

Racourent  aux  humains : 
Ce  grand  entour  espars 
Public  en  toutes  parts 

L'ouvrage  de  ses  mains. 

"  lour  apres  iour  coulant 
Du  Saigneur  va  parlant 

Par  longue  experience. 
La  nuict  suivant  la  nuict, 
Nous  presche  et  nous  instruicst 

De  sa  grad  sapience  " 

Another  much-employed  metre  was  this,  of  the  hun- 
dred and  thirty- third  psalm  :  — 


OTHER  OLD  PSALM-BOOKS.  195 

aux  bors  de  ce  superbe  fleuve 
Que  de  Babel  les  campagnes  abreuve, 
Nos  tristes  coeurs  ne  pensoient  quj  &  Sion. 
Chacun,  helas,  dans  cette  affliction 
Les  yeux  en  pleura  la  inorte  peinte  au  visage 
Pendit  sa  harpe  aux  saules  du  rivage." 

A  third  and  favorite  metre  was  this :  — 

"  Mais  sa  montagne  est  un  sainct  lieu  : 
Qui  viendra  done  au  mont  de  Dieu  ? 

Qui  est-ce  qui  Ik  tiendra  place  ? 
Le  homrae  de  mains  et  coeur  lave*, 
En  vanite  non  &sleve 

Et  qui  n'a  jure*  en  fallace." 

Marot  wrote  in  his  preface  to  the  psalms  :  — 

"  Thrice  happy  they  who  shall  behold 
And  listen  in  that  age  of  gold 
As  by  the  plough  the  laborer  strays 
And  carman  'mid  the  public  ways 
And  tradesman  in  his  shop  shall  swell 
The  voice  in  psalm  and  canticle, 
Sing  to  solace  toil ;  again 
From  woods  shall  come  a  sweeter  strain, 
Shepherd  and  shepherdess  shall  vie 
In  many  a  tender  Psalmody, 
And  the  Creator's  name  prolong 
As  rock  and  stream  return  their  song." 

Though  these  words  seem  prophetic,  the  gay  and 
volatile  Marot  could  never  have  foreseen  what  has 
proved  one  of  the  most  curious  facts  in  religious  his- 
tory,—  that  from  the  airy  and  unsubstantial  seed 
sown  by  the  French  courtier  in  such  a  careless, 


196   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

thoughtless  manner,  would  spring  the  great-spreading 
and  deep-rooted  tree  of  sacred  song. 

Little  volumes  of  the  metrical  rendering  of  the 
Psalms,  known  as  "  Tate  and  Brady's  Version,"  are 
frequently  found  in  New  England.  It  was  the  first 
English  collection  of  psalms  containing  any  smoothly 
flowing  verses.  Many  of  the  descendants  of  the  Puri- 
tans clung  with  affection  to  the  more  literal  render, 
ings  of  the  "New  England  Psalm-Book,"  and  thought 
the  new  verses  were  "  tasteless,  hombastic,  and  irrev- 
erent." The  authors  of  the  new  book  were  certainly 
not  great  poets,  though  Nahum  Tate  was  an  English 
Poet-Laureate.  It  is  said  of  him  that  he  was  so  ex- 
tremely modest  that  he  was  never  able  to  make  his 
fortune  or  to  raise  himself  above  necessity.  He  was 
not  too  modest,  however,  to  dare  to  make  a  metrical 
version  of  the  Psalms,  to  write  an  improvement  of 
King  Lear,  and  a  continuation  of  Absalom  and  Achi- 
tophel.  Brady  —  equally  modest  —  translated  the 
^Eneid  in  rivalry  of  Dryden.  "This  translation," 
says  Johnson,  "  when  dragged  into  the  world  did  not 
live  long  enough  to  cry." 

Such  commonplace  authors  could  hardly  compose 
a  version  that  would  have  a  stable  foundation  or 
promise  of  long  existence.  But  few  of  Tate  and 
Brady's  hymns  are  now  seen  in  our  church-col- 
lections of  Hymns  and  Psalms.  To  them  we 
owe,  however,  these  noble  lines,  which  were  written 
thus : — 


OTHER  OLD  PSALM-BOOKS.  197 

•'  Be  thou,  0  God,  exalted  High, 
And  as  thy  glory  fills  the  Skie 
So  let  it  be  on  Earth  displaid 
Till  thou  art  here  as  There  obeyed." 

The  hymn  commencing, — 

"  My  soul  for  help  on  God  relies, 

From  him  alone  my  safety  flows,** 

is  also  of  their  composition. 

The  first  edition  of  these  psalms  was  printed  in 
1696,  and  bore  this  title, "  The  Book  of  Psalms,  a  new 
version  in  metre  fitted  to  the  tunes  used  in  Churches. 
%  N.  Tate  and  N.  Brady."  It  was  dedicated  to  King 
William,  and  though  its  use  was  permitted  in  English 
churches,  it  never  supplanted  Sternhold  and  Hopkins' 
Version.  In  New  England  Tate  and  Brady's  Psalms 
became  more  universally  popular,  —  not,  however, 
without  fierce  opposing  struggles  from  the  older 
church-members  at  giving  up  the  venerated  "  Bay 
Psalm-Book." 

Another  version  of  Psalms  which  is  occasionally 
found  in  New  England  is  known  as  "  Patrick's  Ver- 
sion." The  title  is  "  The  Psalms  of  David  in  Metre 
Fitted  to  the  Tunes  used  in  Parish  Churches  by  John 
Patrick,  D.  D.  Precentor  to  the  Charter  House  Lon- 
don." A  curious  feature  of  this  octavo  edition  of 
1701,  which  I  have,  is,  "An  Explication  of  Some 
Words  of  less  Common  Use  For  the  Benefit  of  the 
Common  People."  Here  are  a  few  of  the  "  explica- 
tions :  "  — 


198    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

"  Celebrate  —  Make  renown'd. 
Climes  — Countries  differing  in  length  of  days. 
Detracting  —  Lessening  one's  credit. 
Fluid  —  Yielding. 
Infest  —  Annoy. 
Theani —  Matter  of  Discourse. 
Uncessant  —  Never  ceasing. 
Stupendious  —  Astonishing." 

Baxter  said  of  Patrick,  "  His  holy  affection  and 
harmony  hath  so  far  reconciled  the  Nonconformists 
that  diverse  of  them  use  his  Psalms  in  their  congre- 
gation." I  doubt  if  the  version  were  used  in  New 
England  Nonconformist  congregations.  Some  of  his 
verses  read  thus:  — 

"  Lord  hear  the  pray'rs  and  mournfull  cries 

Of  mine  afflicted  estate, 
And  with  thy  Comforts  chear  my  soul 
Before  it  is  too  late. 

"  My  days  consume  away  like  Smoak 

Mine  anguish  is  so  great, 
My  bones  are  not  unlike  a  hearth 
Parched  &  dry  with  heat. 

"  Such  is  my  grief  I  little  else 

Can  do  but  sigh  and  groan. 
So  wasted  is  my  flesh  I  'm  left 
Nothing  but  skin  and  bone. 

"  Like  th'  Owl  and  Pelican  that  dwell 

In  desarts  out  of  sight, 
I  sadly  do  bemoan  myself, 
In  solitude  delight. 


OTHER  OLD  PSALM-BOOKS.  199 

«  The  wakeful  bird  that  on  Housetops 

Sits  without  company 
And  spends  the  night  in  mournful  cries 
Leads  such  a  life  as  I. 

"  The  Ashes  I  rowl  in  when  I  eat 

Are  tasted  with  my  bread, 
And  with  my  Drink  are  mixed  the  tears 
I  plentifully  shed." 

A  version  of  the  Psalms  which  seems  to  have 
demanded  and  deserved  more  attention  than  it  re- 
ceived was  written  by  Cotton  Mather.  He  was 
doomed  to  disappointment  in  seeing  his  version 
adopted  by  the  New  England  churches  just  as  his 
ambitions  and  hopes  were  disappointed  in  many  other 
ways.  This  book  was  published  in  1718.  It  was 
called  "  Psalterium  Americanum.  A  Book  of  Psalms 
in  a  translation  exactly  conformed  unto  the  Original ; 
but  all  in  blank  verse.  Fitted  unto  the  tunes  com- 
monly used  in  the  Church."  By  a  curious  arrange- 
ment of  brackets  and  the  use  of  two  kinds  of  print 
these  psalms  could  be  divided  into  two  separate 
metres  and  could  be  sung  to  tunes  of  either  long  or 
short  metre.  After  each  psalm  were  introduced  ex- 
planations written  in  Mather's  characteristic  manner, 
—  a  manner  both  scholarly  and  bombastic.  I  have 
read  the  "  Psalterium  Americanum  "  with  care,  and 
am  impressed  with  its  elegance,  finish,  and  dignity.  It 
is  so  popular,  however,  even  now-a-days,  to  jibe  at 
poor  Cotton  Mather,  that  his  Psalter  does  not  escape 
the  thrusts  of  laughing  critics.  Mr.  Glass,  the  Eng- 


200   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

lish  critic,  holds  up  these  lines  as  "  one  of  the  rich 
things:"  — 

"  As  the  Hart  makes  a  panting  cry 

For  cooling  streams  of  water, 

So  my  soul  makes  a  panting  cry 

For  thee  —  0  Mighty  God." 

I  have  read  these  lines  over  and  over  again,  and 
fail  to  see  anything  very  ludicrous  in  them,  though 
they  might  be  slightly  altered  to  advantage.  Still  they 
may  be  very  absurd  and  laughable  from  an  English 
point  of  view. 

So  superior  was  Cotton  Mather's  version  to  the 
miserable  verses  given  in  "  The  Bay  Psalm-Book " 
that  one  wonders  it  was  not  eagerly  accepted  by  the 
New  England  churches.  Doubtless  they  preferred 
rhyme  —  even  the  atrocious  rhyme  of  "  The  Bay 
Psalm  Book."  And  the  fact  that  the  "Psalterium 
Americanum"  contained  no  musical  notes  or  direc- 
tions also  militated  against  its  use. 

Other  American  clergymen  prepared  metrical  ver- 
sions of  the  psalms  that  were  much  loved  and  loudly 
sung  by  the  respective  congregations  of  the  writers. 
The  work  of  those  worthy,  painstaking  saints  we  will 
neither  quote  nor  criticise,  —  saying  only  of  each  rev- 
erend versifier,  "  Truly,  I  would  the  gods  had  made 
thee  poetical."  Rev.  John  Barnard,  who  preached 
for  fifty-four  years  in  Marblehead,  published  at  the 
age  of  seventy  years  a  psalm-book  for  his  people. 
Though  it  appeared  in  1752,  a  time  when  "  The  Bay 


OTHER  OLD  PSALM-BOOKS.  201 

Psalm  Book  "  was  being  shoved  out  of  the  New  Eng- 
land churches,  Barnard's  Version  of  the  Psalms  was 
never  used  outside  of  Marblehead.  Rev.  Abijah  Davis 
published  another  book  of  psalms  in  which  he  copied 
whole  pages  from  Watts  without  a  word  of  thanks  or 
of  due  credit,  which  was  apparently  neither  Christian, 
clerical  nor  manly  behavior. 

Watts's  monosyllabic  Hymns,  which  were  not  uni- 
versally used  in  America  until  after  the  Revolution, 
are  too  well  known  and  are  still  too  frequently  seen 
to  need  more  than  mention.  Within  the  last  century 
a  flood  of  new  books  of  psalms  of  varying  merit  and 
existence  has  poured  out  upon  the  New  England 
churches,  and  filled  the  church  libraries  and  church 
pews,  the  second-hand  book  shops,  the  missionary 
boxes,  and  the  paper-mills. 


XV. 

THE  CHURCH   MUSIC. 

OF  all  the  dismal  accompaniments  of  public  wor- 
ship in  the  early  days  of  New  England,  the  music  was 
the  most  hopelessly  forlorn, —  not  alone  from  the  con- 
fused versifications  of  the  Psalms  which  were  used, 
but  from  the  mournful  monotony  of  the  few  known 
tunes  and  the  horrible  manner  in  which  those  tunes 
were  sung.  It  was  not  much  better  in  old  Eng- 
land. In  1676  Master  Mace  wrote  of  the  singing  in 
English  churches,  "  'T  is  sad  to  hear  what  whining, 
toling,  yelling  or  shreaking  there  is  in  our  country 
congregations." 

A  few  feeble  efforts  were  made  in  America  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  to  attempt  to 
guide  the  singing.  The  edition  of  1698  of  "  The  Bay 
Psalm-Book  "  had  u  Some  few  Directions  "  regarding 
the  singing  added  on  the  last  pages  of  the  book,  and 
simple  enough  they  were  in  matter  if  not  in  form. 
They  commence,  "  First,  observe  how  many  note-com- 
pass the  tune  is  next  the  place  of  your  first  note,  and 
how  many  notes  above  and  below  that  so  as  you  may 
begin  the  tune  of  your  first  note,  as  the  rest  may  be 
sung  in  the  compass  of  your  and  the  peoples  voices 
without  Squeaking  above  or  Grumbling  below." 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC  203 

This  "  Squeaking  above  and  Grumbling  below  "  had 
become  far  too  frequent  in  the  churches;  Judge  Sewall 
writes  often  with  much  self-reproach  of  his  failure  in 
"  setting  the  tune,"  and  also  records  with  pride  when 
he  "  set  the  psalm  well."  Here  is  his  pathetic  record 
of  one  of  his  mistakes :  "  He  spake  to  me  to  set  the 
tune.  I  intended  Windsor  and  fell  into  High  Dutch, 
and  then  essaying  to  set  another  tune  went  into  a 
Key  much  to  high.  So  I  pray'd  to  Mr.  White  to  set 
it  which  he  did  well.  Litchfield  Tune.  The  Lord 
Humble  me  and  Instruct  me  that  I  should  be 
the  occasion  of  any  interruption  in  the  worship  of 
God." 

The  singing  at  the  time  must  have  been  bad  be- 
yond belief ;  how  much  of  its  atrocity  was  attributa- 
ble to  the  use  of  "The  Bay  Psalm-Book,"  cannot  now  be 
known.  The  great  length  of  many  of  the  psalms  in 
that  book  was  a  fatal  barrier  to  any  successful  effort 
to  have  good  singing.  Some  of  them  were  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  lines  long,  and  occupied,  when  lined 
and  sung,  a  full  half-hour,  during  which  the  patient 
congregation  stood.  It  is  told  of  Dr.  West,  who 
preached  in  Dartmouth  in  1726,  that  he  forgot  one 
Sabbath  Day  to  bring  his  sermon  to  meeting.  He 
gave  out  a  psalm,  walked  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  his 
house,  got  his  sermon,  and  was  back  in  his  pulpit  long 
before  the  psalm  was  finished.  The  irregularity  of 
the  rhythm  in  "The  Bay  Psalm  Book  "must  also  have 
been  a  serious  difficulty  to  overcome.  Here  is  the 
rendering  given  of  the  133d  Psalm  :  — 


204   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

1.  How  good  and  sweet  to  see 

i  'ts  for  bretheren  to  dwell 
together  in  unitee : 

2.  Its  like  choice  oyle  that  fell 

the  head  upon 

that  down  did  flow 

the  beard  unto 

beard  of  Aron  : 

The  skirts  of  his  garment 

that  unto  them  went  down  : 

3.  Line  Herrnons  dews  descent 

Sions  mountains  upon 
for  there  to  bee 
the  Lords  blessing 
life  aye  lasting 
commandeth  hee. 

How  this  contorted  song  could  have  been  sung  even 
to  the  simplest  tune  by  unskilled  singers  who  pos- 
sessed no  guiding  notes  of  music  is  difficult  to 
comprehend.  Small  wonder  that  Judge  Sewall  was 
forced  to  enter  in  his  diary,  "  In  the  morning  I  set 
York  tune  and  in  the  second  going  over,  the  gallery 
carried  it  irresistibly  to  St.  Davids  which  discouraged 
me  very  much."  We  can  fancy  him  stamping  his 
foot,  beating  time,  and  roaring  York  at  the  top  of  his 
old  lungs,  and  being  overcome  by  the  strong-voiced 
gallery,  and  at  last  sadly  succumbing  to  St.  David's. 
Again  he  writes:  "I  set  York  tune  and  the  Congrega- 
tion went  out  of  it  into  St.  Davids  in  the  very  2nd 
going  over.  They  did  the  same  3  weeks  before.  This 
\a  the  2nd  Sign.  It  seems  to  me  an  intimation  for 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  205 

nic  to  resign  the  Praecentor's  Place  to  a  better  Voice. 
I  have  through  the  Divine  Long  suffering  and  Favour 
done  it  for  24  years  and  now  God  in  his  Providence 
seems  to  call  me  off,  my  voice  being  enfeebled."  Still 
a  third  time  he  "  set  Windsor  tune  ;  "  they  "  ran  over 
into  Oxford  do  what  I  would."  These  unseemly 
"running  overs"  became  so  common  that  ere  long 
each  singer  "  set  the  tune  "  at  his  own  will  and  the 
loudest-voiced  carried  the  day.  A  writer  of  the  time, 
Rev.  Thomas  Walter,  says  of  this  reign  of  concordia 
discors  :  "  The  tunes  are  now  miserably  tortured  and 
twisted  and  quavered,  in  some  Churches,  into  a  horrid 
Medly  of  confused  and  disorderly  Voices.  Our  tunes 
are  left  to  the  Mercy  of  every  unskilful  Throat  to 
chop  and  alter,  to  twist  and  change,  according  to 
their  infinitely  divers  and  no  less  Odd  Humours  and 
Fancies.  I  have  myself  paused  twice  in  one  note  to 
take  breath.  No  two  Men  in  the  Congregation  quaver 
alike  or  together,  it  sounds  in  the  Ears  of  a  Good 
Judge  like  five  hundred  different  Tunes  roared  out 
at  the  same  Time,*  with  perpetual  Interfearings  with 
one  another." 

Still,  confused  and  poor  as  was  the  .singing,  it  was 
a  source  of  pure  and  unceasing  delight  to  the  Puri- 
tan colonists,  —  one  of  the  rare  pleasures  they  pos- 
sessed, —  a  foretaste  of  heaven  ; 


«  «  for  all  we  know 
Of  what  the  blessed  do  above 
Is  that  they  sing  and  that  they 


206        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

And  to  even  that  remnant  of  music  — their  few  jum- 
bled cacophonous  melodies  —  they  clung  with  a  de- 
votion almost  phenomenal. 

Nor  should  we  underrate  the  cohesive  power  that 
psalm-singing  proved  in  the  early  communities  ;  it  was 
one  of  the  most  potent  influences  in  gathering  and 
holding  the  colonists  together  in  love.  And  they 
reverenced  their  poor  halting  tunes  in  a  way  quite  be- 
yond our  modern  power  of  fathoming.  Whenever 
a  Puritan,  even  in  road  or  field,  heard  at  a  distance 
the  sound  of  a  psalm-tune,  though  the  sacred  words 
might  be  quite  undistinguishable,  he  doffed  his  hat 
and  bowed  his  head  in  the  true  presence  of  God.  We 
fain  must  believe,  as  Arthur  Hugh  Clough  says,  — 

"  There  is  some  great  truth,  partial,  very  likely,  but  needful, 
Lodged,  I  arn  strangely  sure,  in  the  tones  of  an  English  psalm- 
tune." 

Judge  Sewall  often  writes  with  tender  and  simple 
pathos  of  his  being  moved  to  tears  by  the  singing,  - 
sometimes  by  the  music,  sometimes  by  the  words. 
"  The  song  of  the  5th  Revelation  was  sung.  I  was 
ready  to  burst  into  tears  at  the  words,  bought  with  thy 
blood"  He  also,  with  a  vehemence  of  language  most 
unusual  in  him  and  which  showed  his  deep  feeling, 
wrote  that  he  had  an  intense  passion  for  music.  And 
yet,  the  only  tunes  he  or  any  of  his  fellow-colonists 
knew  were  the  simple  ones  called  Oxford,  Litchfield, 
Low  Dutch,  York,  Windsor,  Cambridge,  St.  David's 
and  Martyrs. 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  207 

About  the  year  1714  Rev.  John  Tufts,  of  Newbury, 
who  had  previously  prepared  "  A  very  Plain  and 
Easy  Introduction  to  the  Art  of  Singing  Psalm-tunes," 
issued  a  collection  of  tunes  in  three  parts.  These 
thirty -seven  tunes,  all  of  which  but  one  were  in  com- 
mon metre,  were  bound  often  with  "  The  Bay  Psalm- 
Book."  They  were  reprinted  from  Playford's  "  Book 
of  Psalms  "  and  the  notes  of  the  staff  were  replaced 
with  letters  and  dots,  and  the  bars  marking  the  meas- 
ures were  omitted.  To  the  Puritans,  this  great  num- 
ber of  new  tunes  appeared  fairly  monstrous,  and 
formed  the  signal  for  bitter  objections  and  fierce 
quarrels. 

In  1647  a  tract  had  appeared  on  church-singing 
which  had  attracted  much  attention.  It  was  written 
by  Rev.  John  Cotton  to  attempt  to  influence  the 
adoption  and  universal  use  of  "  The  Bay  Psalm-Book." 
This  tract  thoroughly  considered  the  duty  of  singing, 
the  matter  sung,  the  singers,  and  the  manner  of  sing- 
ing ;  and,  like  all  the  literature  of  the  time,  was  full 
of  Biblical  allusion  and  quotation.  It  had  been  said 
that  "  man  should  sing  onely  and  not  the  women. 
Because  it  is  not  permitted  to  a  woman  to  speake 
in  the  Church,  how  then  shall  they  sing  ?  Much 
lesse  is  it  permitted  to  them  to  prophecy  in  the  church 
and  singing  of  Psalms  is  a  kind  of  Prophecying." 
Cotton  fully  answered  and  contradicted  these  false 
reasoners,  who  would  have  had  to  face  a  revolution 
had  they  attempted  to  keep  the  Puritan  women  from 
singing  in  meeting.  The  tract  abounds  in  quaint  ex- 


208        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND 

pressions,  such  as, "  they  have  scoffed  at  Puritan  Min- 
isters as  calling  the  people  to  sing  one  of  Hopkins- 
Jiggs  and  so  hop  into  the  pulpit."  Though  he  wrote 
this  tract  to  encourage  good  singing  in  meeting,  his 
endorsement  of  "  lining  the  Psalm  "  gave  support  to 
the  very  element  that  soon  ruined  the  singing.  His 
reasons,  however,  were  temporarily  good,  "because 
many  wanted  books  and  skill  to  read."  At  that  time, 
and  for  a  century  later,  many  congregations  had  but 
one  or  two  psalm-books,  one  of  which  was  often 
bound  with  the  church  Bible  and  from  which  the 
deacon  lined  the  psalm. 

So  villanous  had  church-singing  at  last  become 
that  the  clergymen^  arose  in  a  body  and  demanded 
better  performances  ;  while  a  desperate  and  disgusted 
party  was  also  formed  which  was  opposed  to  all  sing- 
ing. Still  another  band  of  old  fogies  was  strong  in 
force  who  wished  to  cling  to  the  same  way  of  singing 
that  they  were  accustomed  to ;  and  they  gave  many 
objections  to  the  new-fangled  idea  of  singing  by  note, 
the  chief  item  on  the  list  being  the  everlasting  objec- 
tion of  all  such  old  fossils,  that  "  the  old  way  was 
good  enough  for  our  fathers,"  &c.  They  also  asserted 
that  "  the  names  of  the  notes  were  blasphemous^  "  that 
it  was  "popish;"  that  it  was  a  contrivance  to  get 
money  ;  that  it  would  bring  musical  instruments  into 
the  churches ;  and  that  "  no  one  could  learn  the  tunes 
any  way."  A  writer  in  the  "  New  England  Chronicle  " 
wrote  in  1723,  "  Truly  I  have  a  great  jealousy  that  if 
we  begin  to  sing  by  rule,  the  next  thing  will  be  to 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  209 

prat/  by  rule  and  preach  by  rule  and  then  comes 
popery." 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  excitement,  the 
animosity,  and  the  contention  which  arose  in  the 
New  England  colonies  from  these  discussions  over 
"  singing  by  rule"  or  "  singing  by  rote."  Many  prom- 
inent clergymen  wrote  essays  and  tracts  upon  the 
subject ;  of  these  essays  "  The  Reasonableness  of 
Regular  Singing,1'  also  a  "  Joco-serious  Dialogue  on 
Singing/'  by  Reverend  Mr.  Symmes;  "Cases  of  Con* 
science,"  compiled  by  several  ministers  ;  "  The  Ac- 
complished Singer,"  by  Cotton  Mather,  were  the  most 
important.  "  Singing  Lectures  "  also  were  given  in 
many  parts  of  New  England  by  various  prominent 
ministers.  So  high  was  party  feud  that  a  "  Pacifica- 
tory Letter "  was  necessary,  which  was  probably 
written  by  Cotton  Mather,  and  which  soothed  the 
troubled  waters.  The  people  who  thought  the  "old 
way  was  the  best "  were  entirely  satisfied  when  they 
were  convinced  that  the  oldest  way  of  all  was,  of 
course,  by  note  and  not  by  rote. 

This  na'ive  extract  from  the  records  of  the  First 
Church  of  Windsor,  Connecticut,  will  show  the  way 
in  which  the  question  of  "  singing  by  rule "  was 
often  settled  in  the  churches,  and  it  also  gives  a 
very  amusing  glimpse  of  the  colonial  manner  of  con- 
ducting a  meeting :  - 

"  July  2.  1736.  At  a  Society  meeting  at  which  Capt. 
Pelatiah  Allyn  Moderator.  The  business  of  the  meeting 
proceeded  in  the  following,  manner  Viz.  the  Moderator 


210        THE  SABBATH  IN   PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

proposed  as  to  the  consideration  of  the  meeting  in  the 
1st  Place  what  should  be  done  respecting  that  part  of 
publick  Worship  called  Singing  viz.  whether  in  their 
Publick  meetings  as  on  Sabbath  day,  Lectures  &c  they 
would  sing  the  way  that  Deacon  Marshall  usually  sung  in 
his  lifetime  commonly  called  the  4  Old  Way  '  or  whether 
they  would  sing  the  way  taught  by  Mr.  Beal  commonly 
called  4  Singing  by  Rule,'  and  when  the  Society  had  dis- 
coursed the  matter  the  Moderator  proposed  to  vote  for 
said  two  ways  as  followeth  viz.  that  those  that  were  for 
singing  in  publick  in  the  way  practiced  by  Deacon 
Marshall  should  hold  up  their  hands  and  be  counted,  and 
then  that  those  that  were  desirous  to  sing  in  Mr.  Beals 
way  called  k  by  Rule '  would  after  show  their  minds  by 
the  same  sign  which  method  was  proceeded  upon  accord- 
ingly. But  when  the  vote  was  passed  there  being  many 
voters  it  was  difficult  to  take  the  exact  number  of  votes 
in  order  to  determine  on  which  side  the  major  vote  was ; 
whereupon  the  Moderator  ordered  all  the  voters  to  go  out 
of  the  seats  and  stand  in  the  alleys  and  then  those  that 
were  for  Deacon  Marshalls  way  should  go  into  the  mens 
seats  and  those  that  were  for  Mr.  Beals  way  should  go 
into  the  womens  seat  and  after  much  objections  made 
against  that  way,  which  prevailed  not  with  the  Moderator, 
it  was  complied  with,  and  then  the  Moderator  desired 
that  those  that  were  of  the  mind  that  the  way  to  be 
practiced  for  singing  for  the  future  on  the  Sabbath  &c 
should  be  the  way  sung  by  Deacon  Marshall  as  aforesaid 
would  signify  the  same  by  holding  up  their  hands  and  be 
counted,  and  then  the  Moderator  and  myself  went  and 
counted  the  voters  and  the  Moderator  asked  me  how 
many  there  was.  I  answered  42  and  he  said  there  was 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  211 

63  or  64  and  then  we  both  counted  again  and  agreed  the 
number  being  43.  Then  the  Moderator  was  about  to 
count  the  number  of  votes  for  Mr.  Beals  way  of  Singing 
called  «  by  Rule '  but  it  was  offered  whether  it  would  not 
be  better  to  order  the  voters  to  pass  out  of  the  Meeting 
House  door  and  there  be  counted  who  did  accordingly 
and  their  number  was  44  or  45.  Then  the  Moderator 
proceeded  and  desired  that  those  who  were  for  singing  in 
Public  the  way  that  Mr.  Beal  taught  would  draw  out  of 
their  seats  and  pass  out  of  the  door  and  be  counted. 
They  replied  they  were  ready  to  show  their  minds  in 
any  proper  way  where  they  were  if  they  might  be  directed 
thereto  but  would  not  go  out  of  the  door  to  do  the  same 
and  desired  that  they  might  be  led  to  a  vote  where  they 
were  and  they  were  ready  to  show  their  minds  which  the 
Moderator  refused  to  do  and  thereupon  declared  that  it 
was  voted  that  Deacon  Marshalls  way  of  singing  called 
the  *  Old  Way '  should  be  sung  in  Publick  for  the  future 
and  ordered  me  to  record  the  same  as  the  vote  of  the  Said 
Society  which  I  refused  to  do  under  the  circumstances 
thereof  and  have  recorded  the  facts  and  proceedings.'' 

Good  old  lining,  droning  Deacon  Marshall !  though 
you  were  dead  and  gone,  you  and  your  years  of  psalm- 
singings  were  not  forgotten.  You  lived,  an  idealized 
memory  of  pure  and  pious  harmony,  in  the  hearts  of 
your  old  church  friends.  Warmly  did  they  fight  for 
your  "way  of  singing;"  with  most  undeniable  and 
open  partiality,  with  most  dubious  ingenuousness  and 
rectitude,  did  your  old  neighbor,  Captain  Pelatiah 
Allyn,  conduct  that  hot  July  music-meeting,  counting 
up  boldly  sixty-three  votes  in  favor  of  your  way,  when 


212    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

there  were  only  forty-three  voters  on  your  side  of  the 
alley,  and  crowding  a  final  decision  in  your  favcr.  It 
is  sad  to  read  that  when  icy  winter  chilled  the  blood, 
warm  partisanship  of  old  friends  also  cooled,  and  in- 
novative Windsor  youth  carried  the  day  and  the  music 
vote,  and  your  good  old  way  was  abandoned  for  half 
the  Sunday  services,  to  allow  the  upstart  new  fashion 
to  take  control. 

One  happy  result  arose  throughout  New  England 
from  the  victory  of  the  ardent  advocates  of  the  "  sing- 
ing by  rule,"  --  the  establishment  of  the  New  England 
"  singing-school,"  —  that  outlet  for  the  pent-up,  amuse- 
ment-lacking lives  of  young  people  in  colonial  times. 
What  that  innocent  and  happy  gathering  was  in  the 
monotonous  existence  of  our  ancestors  and  ances- 
tresses, we  of  the  present  pleasure-filled  days  can 
hardly  comprehend. 

Extracts  from  the  records  of  various  colonial 
churches  will  show  how  soon  the  respective  com- 
munities yielded  to  the  march  of  improvement  and 
"  seated  the  taught  singers "  together,  thus  forming 
choirs.  In  1762  the  church  at  Rowley,  Massachusetts, 
voted  "  that  those  who  have  learned  the  art  of  Sing- 
ing may  have  liberty  to  sit  in  the  front  gallery."  In 
1780  the  same  parish  "  requested  Jonathan  Chaplin 
and  Lieutenant  Spefford  to  assist  the  deacons  in 
Raising  the  tune  in  the  meeting  house."  In  Sutton, 
in  1791,  the  Company  of  Singers  were  allowed  to  sit 
together,  and  $13  was  voted  to  pay  for  u  laming  to 
sing  by  Rule."  The  Roxbury  "First  Church"  voted 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  213 

in  1770  "three  seats  in  the  back  gallery  for  those 
inclined  to  sit  together  for  the  purpose  of  singing." 
The  church  in  Hanover,  in  1742,  took  a  vote  to  see 
whether  the  "  church  will  sing  in  the  new  way " 
and  appoint  a  tuner.  In  Woodbury,  Connecticut, 
in  1750  the  singers  "may  sitt  up  Galery  all  day  if 
they  please  but  to  keep  to  there  own  seat  &  not  to 
Infringe  on  the  Women  Pues."  In  1763,  in  the 
Ipswich  First  Parish,  the  singers  were  allowed  to 
sit  "  two  back  on  each  side  of  the  front  alley." 
Similar  entries  may  be  found  in  nearly  every  record 
of  New  England  churches  in  the  middle  or  latter  part 
of  that  century. 

The  musical  battle  was  not  finished,  however,  when 
the  singing  was  at  last  taught  by  rule,  and  the  singers 
were  allowed  to  sit  together  and  form  a  choir.  There 
still  existed  the  odious  custom  of  u  lining  "  or  "  dea- 
coning "  the  psalm.  To  this  fashion  may  be  attributed 
the  depraved  condition  of  church-singing  of  which 
Walters  so  forcibly  wrote,  and  while  it  continued  the 
case  seemed  hopeless,  in  spite  of  singing-schools  and 
singing-teachers.  It  would  be  trying  to  the  continued 
uniformity  of  pitch  of  an  ordinary  church  choir,  even 
now-a-days,  to  have  to  stop  for  several  seconds  between 
each  line  to  listen  to  a  reading  and  sometimes  to  an 
explanation  of  the  following  line. 

The  Westminster  Assembly  had  suggested  in  1664 
the  alternate  reading  and  singing  of  each  line  of  the 
psalm  to  those  churches  that  were  not  well  supplied 
with  psalm-books.  The  suggestion  had  not  been 


214   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

adopted  without  discussion.  It  was  in  1680  much 
talked  over  in  the  church  in  Plymouth,  and  was 
adopted  only  after  getting  the  opinion  of  each  male 
church  member.  When  once  taken  into  general  use 
the  custom  continued  everywhere,  through  careless- 
ness and  obstinacy,  long  after  the  churches  possessed 
plenty  of  psalm-books.  An  early  complaint  against 
it  was  made  by  Dr.  Watts  in  the  preface  of  his 
hymns,  which  were  published  by  Benjamin  Franklin 
in  1741.  As  Watts'  Psalms  and  Hymns  were  not, 
however,  in  general  use  in  New  England  until  after 
the  Revolution,  this  preface  with,  its  complaint  was 
for  a  long  time  little  seen  and  little  heeded. 

It  is  said  that  the  abolition  came  gradually ;  that 
the  impetuous  and  well-trained  singers  at  first  cut  off 
the  last  word  only  of  the  deacon's  "lining;"  they 
then  encroached  a  word  or  two  further,  and  finally 
sung  boldly  on  without  stopping  at  all  to  be 
"deaconed."  This  brought  down  a  tempest  of  in- 
dignation from  the  older  church-members,  who  pro- 
tested, however,  in  vain.  A  vote  in  the  church  usu- 
ally found  the  singers  victorious,  and  whether  the 
church  voted  for  or  against  the  "lining,"  the  choir 
would  always  by  stratagem  vanquish  the  deacon. 
One  old  soldier  took  his  revenge,  however.  Being 
sung  down  by  the  rampant  choir,  he  still  showed 
battle,  and  rose  at  the  conclusion  of  the  psalm  and 
opened  his  psalm-book,  saying  calmly,  "  Now  let  the 
people  of  the  Lord  sing." 

The  Rowley  church  tried  diplomacy  in  their  strug- 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  215 

gle  against  "  deaconing,"  by  instituting  a  gradual 
abolishing  of  the  custom.  In  1785  the  choir  was 
allowed  "to  sing  once  on  the  Lord's  Day  without 
reading  by  the  Deacon."  In  five  years  the  Rowley 
singers  were  wholly  victorious,  and  "lining  out"  the 
psalm  was  entirely  discontinued. 

In  1770,  dissatisfaction  at  the  singing  in  the  church 
was  rife  in  Wilbraham,  and  a  vote  was  taken  to  see 
whether  the  town  would  be  willing  to  have  singing 
four  times  at  each  service ;  and  it  was  voted  to  "  take 
into  consideration  the  Broken  State  of  this  Town  with 
regard  to  singing  on  the  Sabbath  Day."  Special  and 
bitter  objection  was  made  against  the  leader  beating 
time  so  ostentatiously.  A  list  of  singers  was  made 
and  a  singing-master  appointed.  The  deacon  was 
allowed  to  lead  and  line  and  beat  time  in  the  fore- 
noon, while  the  new  school  was  to  have  control  in  the 
afternoon ;  and  "  whoever  leads  the  singing  shall  be 
at  liberty  to  use  the  motion  of  his  hand  while  singing 
for  the  space  of  three  months  only."  It  is  needless 
to  state  who  came  off  victorious  in  the  end.  The 
deacon  left  as  a  parting  shot  a  request  to  "  make 
Inquiry  into  the  conduct  of  those  who  call  them- 
selves the  Singers  in  this  town." 

In  Worcester,  in  1779,  a  resolution  adopted  at  the 
town  meeting  was  "  that  the  mode  of  singing  in  the 
congregation  here  be  without  reading  the  psalms  line 
by  line."  "  The  Sabbath  succeeding  the  adoption  of 
this  resolution,  after  the  hymn  had  been  read  by  the 
minister,  the  aged  and  venerable  Deacon  Chamberlain, 


216     THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

unwilling  to  abandon  the  custom  of  his  fathers  and 
his  own  honorable  prerogative,  rose  and  read  the  first 
line  according  to  his  usual  practice.  The  singers, 
previously  prepared  to  carry  the  desired  alteration 
into  effect,  proceeded  in  their  singing  without  pausing 
at  the  conclusion  of  the  line.  The  white-haired 
officer  of  the  church  with  the  full  power  of  his  voice 
read  on  through  the  second  line,  until  the  loud  notes 
of  the  collected  body  of  singers  overpowered  his  at- 
tempt to  resist  the  progress  of  improvement.  The 
deacon,  deeply  mortified  at  the  triumph  of  the  musi- 
cal reformation,  then  seized  his  hat  and  retired  from 
the  meeting-house  in  tears."  His  conduct  was  cen- 
sured by  the  church,  and  he  was  for  a  time  deprived 
of  partaking  in  the  communion,  for  "  absenting  him- 
self from  the  public  services  of  the  Sabbath ; "  but  in 
a  few  weeks  the  unhouselled  deacon  was  forgiven,  and 
never  attempted  to  "  line  "  again. 

Though  the  opponents  of  "  lining  "  were  victorious 
in  the  larger  villages  and  towns,  in  smaller  parishes, 
where  there  were  few  hymn-books,  the  lining  of  the 
psalms  continued  for  many  years.  Mr.  Hood  wrote, 
in  1846,  the  astonishing  statement  that  "  the  habit  of 
lining  prevails  to  this  day  over  three-fourths  of  the 
United  States."  This  I  can  hardly  believe,  though  I 
know  that  at  present  the  practice  obtains  in  out  of 
the  way  towns  with  poor  and  ignorant  congregations. 
The  separation  of  the  lines  often  gives  a  very 
strange  meaning  to  the  words  of  a  psalm  ;  and  one 
wonders  what  the  Puritan  children  thought  when 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  217 

they   heard   this   line    of   contradictions   that   Hood 
points  out :  — 

"  The  Lord' will  come  and  He  will  not," 

and  after  singing  that  line  through  heard  the  second 
line,  — 

"  Keep  silence,  but  speak  out." 

Many  new  psalm-books  appeared  about  the  time  of 
the  Revolutionary  War,  and  many  church  petitions 
have  been  preserved  asking  permission  to  use  the 
new  and  more  melodious  psalm  and  hymn  books. 
Books  of  instruction  also  abounded,  —  books  in  which 
the  notes  were  not  printed  on  the  staff,  and  books  in 
which  there  were  staffs  but  no  notes,  only  letters  or 
other  characters  (these  were  called  "  dunce  notes  ")  ; 
books,  too,  in  which  the  notes  were  printed  so  thickly 
that  they  could  scarcely  be  distinguished  one  from  the 
other. 

"  A  dotted  tribe  with  ebon  heads 

That  climb  the  slender  fence  along, 

As  black  as  ink,  as  thick  as  weeds, 

Ye  little  Africans  of  song." 

One  book  —  perhaps  the  worst,  since  it  was  the  most 
pretentious  — was  "  The  Compleat  Melody  or  Harmony 
of  Sion,"  by  William  Tansur,  —  "  Ingenious  Tans'ur 
Skilled  in  Musicks  Art."  It  was  a  most  superficial, 
pedantic,  and  bewildering  composition.  The  musical 
instruction  was  given  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  ill- 
spelled  dialogues  between  a  teacher  and  pupil,  inter- 
spersed with  occasional  miserable  rhymes.  It  was 


218        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

ill-expressed  at  best,  and  such  musical  terms  as 
"  Rations  of  Concords,"  Trilloes,"  "  Trif diapasons," 
"  Leaps,"  "  Binding  cadences,"  "Disallowances,"  "  Can- 
ons," "  Prime  Flower  of  Florid,"  "  Consecutions  of 
Perfects,"  and  "Figurates,"  make  the  book  exceed- 
ingly difficult  of  comprehension  to  the  average  reader, 
though  possibly  not  to  a  student  of  obsolete  musical 
phraseology. 

A  side  skirmish  on  the  music  field  was  at  this 
time  fought  between  the  treble  and  the  tenor  parts. 
Ravenscroft's  Psalms  and  Walter's  book  had  given 
the  melody,  or  plain-song,  to  the  tenor.  This  had,  of 
course,  thrown  additional  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
good  singing ;  but  when  once  the  trebles  obtained  the 
leading  part,  after  the  customary  bitter  opposition, 
the  improved  singing  approved  the  victory. 

Many  objections,  too,  were  made  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  "  triple-time  "  tunes.  It  gave  great  offence  to 
the  older  Puritans,  who  wished  to  drawl  out  all  the 
notes  of  uniform  length  ;  and  some  persons  thought 
that  marking  and  accenting  the  measure  was  a  step 
toward  the  "  Scarlet  Woman."  The  time  was  called 
derisively,  "  a  long  leg  and  a  short  one." 

These  old  bigots  must  have  been  paralyzed  at  the 
new  style  of  psalm-singing  which  was  invented  and 
introduced  by  a  Massachusetts  tanner  and  singing- 
master  named  Billings,  and  which  was  suggested, 
doubtless,  by  the  English  anthems.  It  spread  through 
the  choirs  of  colonial  villages  and  towns  like  wild-fire, 
and  was  called  "  fuguing."  Mr.  Billings'  "  Fuguing 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  219 

Psalm  Singer  "  was  published  in  1770.  It  is  a  dingy, 
ill-printed  book  with  a  comically  illustrated  frontis- 
piece, long  pages  of  instruction,  and  this 

"  0,  praise  the  Lord  with  one 
And  in  this  grand  design 
Let  Britain  and  the  Colonies 
Unanimously  join." 

The  succeeding  hymn-books,  and  the  patriotic 
hymns  of  Billings  in  post-Revolutionary  years  have 
no  hint  of  "  Britain  "  in  them.  The  names  "  Federal 
Harmony,"  "  Columbian  Harmony,"  "  Continental  Har- 
mony," "  Columbian  Repository,"  and  "  United  States 
Sacred  Harmony "  show  the  new  nation.  Billings 
also  published  the  "  Psalm  Singer's  Amusement,"  and 
other  singing-books.  The  shades  of  Cotton,  of  Sewall, 
of  Mather  must  have  groaned  aloud  at  the  sugges- 
tions, instructions,  and  actions  of  this  unregenerate, 
daring,  and  "  amusing  "  leader  of  church-singing. 

It  seems  astonishing  that  New  England  communi- 
ties in  those  times  of  anxious  and  depressing  warfare 
should  have  so  delightedly  seized  and  adopted  this 
unusual  and  comparatively  joyous  style  of  singing, 
but  perhaps  the  new  spirit  of  liberty  demanded  more 
animated  and  spirited  expression  ;  and  Billings'  psalm- 
tunes  were  played  with  drum  and  fife  on  the  battle- 
field to  inspire  the  American  soldiers.  Billings  wrote 
of  his  fuguing  invention,  "  It  has  more  than  twenty 
times  the  power  of  the  old  slow  tunes.  Now  the 
solemn  bass  demands  their  attention,  next  the  manly 
tenor,  now  the  lofty  counter,  now  the  volatile  treble. 


220        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Now  here !      Now  there  !      Now  here   again !      Oh 
ecstatic,  push  on,  ye  sons  of  harmony ! " 
Dr.  Mather  Byles  wrote  thus  of  fuguing  :  — 

"  Down  starts  the  Bass  with  Grave  Majestic  Air, 
And  up  the  Treble  mounts  with  shrill  Career, 
With  softer  Sounds  in  mild  melodious  Maze 
Warbling  between,  the  Tenor  gently  plays 
And,  if  th*  inspiring  Altus  joins  the  Force 
See !  like  the  Lark  it  Wings  its  towering  Course 
Thro'  Harmony's  sublimest  Sphere  it  flies 
And  to  Angelic  Accents  seems  to  rise." 

A  more  modern  poet  in  affectionate  remembrance 
thus  sings  the  fugue  :  — 

"  A  fugue  let  loose  cheers  up  the  place, 

With  bass  and  tenor,  alto,  air, 
The  parts  strike  in  with  measured  grace, 
And  something  sweet  is  everywhere. 

"  As  if  some  warbling  brood  should  build 

Of  bits  of  tunes  a  singing  nest ; 
Each  bringing  that  with  which  it  thrilled 
And  weaving  it  with  all  the  rest." 

All  public  worshippers  in  the  meetings  one  hundred 
years  ago  did  not,  however,  regard  fuguing  as  "  some- 
thing sweet  everywhere,"  nor  did  they  agree  with 
Billings  and  Byles  as  to  its  angelic  and  ecstatic  prop- 
erties. Some  thought  it  "  heartless,  tasteless,  trivial, 
and  irreverent  jargon."  Others  thought  the  tunes 
were  written  more  for  the  absurd  inflation  of  the 
singers  than  for  the  glory  of  God ;  and  many  fully 
sympathized  with  the  man  who  hung  two  cats  over 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  221 

Billings's  door  to  indicate  his  opinion  of  Billings's 
caterwauling.  An  old  inhabitant  of  Roxbury  remem- 
bered that  when  fuguing  tunes  were  introduced  into 
his  church  "  they  produced  a  literally  fuguing  effect 
on  the  older  people,  who  went  out  of  the  church  as 
soon  as  the  first  verse  was  sung."  One  scandalized 
and  belligerent  old  clergyman,  upon  the  Sabbath  fol- 
lowing the  introduction  of  fuguing  into  his  church, 
preached  upon  the  prophecy  of  Amos,  "  The  songs  of 
the  temple  shall  be  turned  into  howling,"  while  an- 
other took  for  his  text  the  sixth  verse  of  the  seven- 
teenth chapter  of  Acts,  "  Those  that  have  turned  the 
world  upside  down,  are  come  hither  also."  One  in- 
dignant and  disgusted  church  attendant  thus  pro- 
fanely recorded  in  church  his  views :  — 

"  Written  out  of  temper  on  a  Pannel  in  one  of  the 
Pues  in  Salem  Church :  — 

"  Could  poor  King  David  but  for  once 

To  Salem  Church  repair ; 
And  hear  his  Psalms  thus  warbled  out, 
Good  Lord,  how  he  would  swear. 

"  But  could  St.  Paul  but  just  pop  in, 

From  higher  scenes  abstracted, 
And  hear  his  Gospel  now  explained, 
By  Heavens,  he'd  run  distracted." 

These  lines  were  reprinted  in  the  "  American  Apollo  " 
in  1792. 

The  repetition  of  a  word  or  syllable  in  fuguing  often 
lead  to  some  ridiculous  variations  in  the  meanings  of 
the  lines.  Thus  the  words  — 


222        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

"  With  reverence  let  the  saints  appear 
And  bow  before  the  Lord," 

were  forced  to  be  sung,  "  And  bow-wow-wow,  And 
bow-ow-ow,"  and  so  on  until  bass,  treble,  alto,  counter, 
and  tenor  had  bow-wowed  for  about  twenty  seconds ; 
yet  I  doubt  if  the  simple  hearts  that  sung  ever  saw 
the  absurdity. 

It  is  impossible  while  speaking  of  fuguing  to  pass 
over  an  extraordinary  element  of  the  choir  called 
"  singing  counter."  The  counter-tenor  parts  in  Euro- 
pean church-music  were  originally  written  for  boys' 
voices.  From  thence  followed  the  falsetto  singing  of 
the  part  by  men  ;  such  was  also  the  "  counter  "  of 
New  England.  It  was  my  fortune  to  hear  once  in  a 
country  church  an  aged  deacon  "  sing  counter."  Rev- 
erence for  the  place  and  song,  and  respect  for  the 
singer  alike  failed  to  control  the  irrepressible  start 
of  amazement  and  smile  of  amusement  with  which 
we  greeted  the  weird  and  apparently  demented  shriek 
which  rose  high  over  the  voices  of  the  choir,  but 
which  did  not  at  all  disconcert  their  accustomed  ears. 
Words,  however  chosen,  would  fail  in  attempting  to 
describe  the  grotesque  and  uncanny  sound. 

It  is  very  evident,  when  once  choirs  of  singers  were 
established  and  attempts  made  for  congregations  to 
sing  the  same  tune,  and  to  keep  together,  and  upon 
the  same  key,  that  in  some  way  a  decided  pitch  must 
be  given  to  them  to  start  upon.  To  this  end  pitch- 
pipes  were  brought  into  the  singers'  gallery,  and  the 
pitch  was  given  sneakingly  and  shamefacedly  to  the 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  223 

singers.  From  these  pitch-pipes  the  steps  were  grad- 
ual, but  they  led,  as  the  Puritan  divines  foresaw,  to 
the  general  introduction  of  musical  instruments  into 
the  meetings. 

This  seemed  to  be  attacking  the  very  foundations 
of  their  church ;  for  the  Puritans  in  England  had, 
in  1557,  expressly  declared  "  concerning  singing  of 
psalms  we  allow  of  the  people  joining  with  one  voice 
in  a  plain  tune,  but  not  in  tossing  the  psalms  from 
one  side  to  the  other  with  mingling  of  organs."  The 
Round-heads  had,  in  1664,  gone  through  England 
destroying  the  noble  organs  in  the  churches  and 
cathedrals.  They  tore  the  pipes  from  the  organ  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  shouting, "  Hark  !  how  the  organs 
go  ! "  and,  "  Mark  what  musick  that  is,  that  is  lawful 
for  a  Puritan  to  dance,"  and  they  sold  the  metal  for  pots 
of  ale.  Only  four  or  five  organs  were  left  uninjured  in 
all  England.  'Twas  not  likely,  then,  that  New  Eng- 
land Puritans  would  take  kindly  to  any  musical  in- 
struments. Cotton  Mather  declared  that  there  was 
not  a  word  in  the  New  Testament  that  authorized  the 
use  of  such  aids  to  devotion.  The  ministers  preached 
often  and  long  on  the  text  from  the  prophecy  of  Amos, 
"  I  will  not  hear  the  melody  of  thy  viols ; "  while, 
Puritan-fashion,  they  ignored  the  other  half  of  the 
verse,  "Take  thou  away  from  me  the  noise  of  thy 
songs."  Disparaging  comparisons  were  made  with 
Nebuchadnezzar's  idolatrous  concert  of  cornet,  flute, 
dulcimer,  sackbut,  and  psaltery;  and  the  ministers, 
from  their  overwhelming  store  of  Biblical  knowledge, 
hurled  text  after  text  at  the  "  fiddle-players." 


224   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Some  of  the  first  pitch-pipes  were  comical  little 
apple-wood  instruments  that  looked  like  mouse-traps, 
and  great  pains  was  taken  to  conceal  them  as  they 
were  passed  surreptitiously  from  hand  to  hand  in  the 
choir.  I  have  seen  one  which  was  carefully  concealed 
in  a  box  that  had  a  leather  binding  like  a  book,  and 
which  was  ostentatiously  labelled  in  large  gilt  letters 
"  Holy  Bible ; "  a  piece  of  barefaced  and  unnecessary 
deception  on  the  part  of  some  pious  New  England 
deacon  or  chorister. 

Little  wooden  fifes  were  also  used,  and  then  metal 
tuning-forks.  A  canny  Scotchman,  who  abhorred  the 
thought  of  all  musical  instruments  anywhere,  managed 
to  have  one  fling  at  the  pitch-pipe.  The  pitch  had 
been  given  but  was  much  too  high,  and  before  the  first 
verse  was  ended  the  choir  had  to  cease  singing.  The 
Scotchman  stood  up  and  pointed  his  long  finger  to  the 
leader,  saying  in  broad  accents  of  scorn, "  Ah,  Johnny 
Smuth,  now  ye  can  have  a  chance  to  blaw  yer  braw 
whustle  agaen."  At  a  similar  catastrophe  owing  to 
the  mistake  of  the  leader  in  Medford,  old  General 
Brooks  rose  in  his  pew  and  roared  in  an  irritated 
voice  of  command,  "  Halt !  Take  another  pitch, 
Bailey,  take  another  pitch." 

In  1713  there  was  sent  to  America  an  English 
organ,  "  a  pair  of  organs  "  it  was  called,  which  had 
chanced,  by  being  at  the  manufacturers  instead  of  in 
a  church,  to  have  escaped  the  general  destruction  by 
the  Round-heads.  It  was  given  by  Thomas  Brattle  to 
the  Brattle  Street  Church  in  Boston.  The  congrega- 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  ,    225 

tion  voted  to  refuse  the  gift,  and  it  was  then  sent  to 
King's  Chapel,  where  it  remained  unpacked  for  several 
months  for  fear  of  hostile  demonstrations,  but  was 
finally  set  up  and  used.  In  1740  a  Bostonian  named 
Bromfield  made  an  organ,  and  it  was  placed  in  a  meet- 
ing-house and  used  weekly.  In  1794  the  church  in 
New  bury  obtained  an  organ,  and  many  unpleasant 
and  disparaging  references  were  made  by  clergymen 
of  other  parishes  to  "  our  neighbor's  box  of  whistles," 
"  the  tooting  tub." 

Violoncellos,  or  bass-viols,  as  they  were  universally 
called,  were  almost  the  first  musical  instruments  that 
were  allowed  in  the  New  England  churches.  They 
were  called,  without  intentional  irreverence,  "  Lord's 
fiddles."  Violins  were  widely  opposed,  they  savored 
too  much  of  low,  tavern  dance-music.  After  much 
consultation  a  satisfactory  compromise  was  agreed 
upon  by  which  violins  were  allowed  in  many  meetings, 
if  the  performers  "  would  play  the  fiddle  wrong  end 
up."  Thus  did  our  sanctimonious  grandfathers  cajole 
and  persuade  themselves  that  an  inverted  fiddle  was 
not  a  fiddle  at  all,  but  a  small  bass-viol.  An  old  lady, 
eighty  years  old,  wrote  thus  in  the  middle  of  this 
century,  of  the  church  of  her  youth  :  "  After  awhile 
there  was  a  bass-viol  Introduced  and  brought  into 
meeting  and  did  not  suit  the  Old  people ;  one  Old 
Gentleman  got  up,  took  his  hat  off  the  pegg  and 
inarched  off.  Said  they  had  begun  fiddling  and  there 
would  be  dancing  soon."  Another  church-member,  in 
derisive  opposition  to  a  clarinet  which  had  been  "  voted 

15 


226        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

into  the  choir,"  brought  into  meeting  a  fish-horn, 
which  he  blew  loud  and  long  to  the  complete  rout  of 
the  clarinet-player  and  the  singers.  When  reproved 
for  this  astounding  behavior  he  answered  stoutly  that 
"  if  one  man  could  blow  a  horn  in  the  Lord's  House  on 
the  Sabbath  day  he  guessed  he  could  too,"  and  he  had 
-to  be  bound  over  to  keep  the  peace  before  the  follow- 
ing Sunday.  A  venerable  and  hitherto  decorous  old 
deacon  of  Roxbury  not  only  left  the  church  when  the 
hated  bass-viol  began  its  accompanying  notes,  but  he 
stood  for  a  long  time  outside  the  church  door  stridently 
"  caterwauling "  at  the  top  of  his  lungs.  When  ex- 
postulated with  for  this  unseemly  and  unchristianlike 
annoyance  he  explained  that  he  was  "  only  mocking 
the  banjo."  To  such  depths  of  rebellion  were  stirred 
the  Puritan  instincts  of  these  religious  souls. 

Many  a  minister  said  openly  that  he  would  like  to 
walk  out  of  his  pulpit  when  the  obnoxious  and  hated 
flutes,  violins,  bass-viols,  and  bassoons  were  played 
upon  in  the  singing  gallery.  One  clergyman  con- 
temptuously announced  "  We  will  now  sing  and  fiddle 
the  forty-fifth  Psalm."  Another  complained  of  the 
indecorous  dress  of  the  fiddle-player.  This  had  re- 
ference to  the  almost  universal  custom,  in  country 
churches  in  the  summer  time,  of  the  bass-viol  player 
removing  his  coat  and  playing  "in  his  shirt  sleeves." 
Others  hated  the  noisy  tuning  of  the  bass-viol  while 
the  psalin  was  being  read.  Mr.  Brown,  of  Westerly, 
sadly  deplored  that  "  now  we  have  only  catgut  and 
resin  religion." 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  227 

In  1804  the  church  in  Quincy,  being  "  advanced," 
granted  the  singers  the  sum  of  twenty-five  dollars  to 
buy  a  bass-viol  to  use  in  meeting,  and  a  few  other 
churches  followed  their  lead.  From  the  year  1794 
till  1829  the  church  in  Wareham,  Massachusetts,  was 
deeply  agitated  over  the  question  of  "  Bass-Viol,  or  No 
Bass-Viol."  They  voted  that  a  bass-viol  was  "  expe- 
dient," then  they  voted  to  expel  the  hated  abomina- 
tion ;  then  was  obtained  "  Leave  for  the  Bass  Viol  to 
be  brought  into  ye  meeting  house  to  be  Played  On 
every  other  Sabbath  &  to  Play  if  chosen  every  Sab- 
bath in  the  Intermission  between  meetings  &  not  to 
Pitch  the  Tunes  on  the  Sabbaths  that  it  don't  Play." 
Then  they  tried  to  bribe  the  choir  for  fifty  dollars  not 
to  use  the  "  bars-vile,"  but  being  unsuccessful,  many 
members  in  open  rebellion  stayed  away  from  church 
and  were  disciplined  therefor.  Then  they  voted  that 
the  bass-viol  could  not  be  used  unless  Capt.  Gibbs 
were  previously  notified  (so  he  and  his  family  need 
not  come  to  hear  the  hated  sounds) ;  but  at  last, 
after  thirty  years,  the  choir  and  the  "  fiddle-player " 
were  triumphant  in  Wareham  as  they  were  in  other 
towns. 

We  were  well  into  the  present  century  before  any 
cheerful  and  also  simple  music  was  heard  in  our 
churches ;  fuguing  was  more  varied  and  surprising 
than  cheerful.  Of  course,  it  was  difficult  as  well  as 
inappropriate  to  suggest  pleasing  tunes  for  such 
words  as  these :  — 


228        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

"  Far  in  the  deep  where  darkness  dwells, 

The  land  of  horror  and  despair, 
Justice  hath  built  a  dismal  hell, 
And  laid  her  stores  of  vengeance  there  : 

"  Eternal  plagues  and  heavy  chains, 

Tormenting  racks  and  fiery  coals, 
And  darts  to  inflict  immortal  pains, 
Dyed  in  the  blood  of  damned  souls." 

But  many  of  the  words  of  the  old  hymns  were 
smooth,  lively,  and  encouraging ;  and  the  young  singers 
and  perhaps  the  singing-masters  craved  new  and  less 
sober  tunes.  Old  dance  tunes  were  at  first  adapted ; 
"  Sweet  Anne  Page,"  "  Babbling  Echo,"  "  Little  Pickle" 
were  set  to  sacred  words.  The  music  of  "  Few  Happy 
Matches "  was  sung  to  the  hymn  "  Lo,  on  a  narrow 
neck  of  land ; "  and  that  of  "  When  I  was  brisk  and 
young  "  was  disguised  with  the  sacred  words  of  "  Let 
sinners  take  their  course."  The  jolly  old  tune,  "  Be- 
gone dull  care,"  which  began,  — 

"  My  wife  shall  dance,  and  I  will  sing, 
And  merrily  pass  the  day." 

was  strangely  appropriated  to  the  solemn  words,  — 

"  If  this  be  death,  I  soon  shall  be 
From  every  pain  and  sorrow  free," 

and  did  not  seem  ill-fitted  either. 

"  Sacred  arrangements,"  "  spiritual  songs,"  "  sacred 
airs,"  soon  followed,  and  of  course  demanded  singers 
of  capacity  and .  education  to  sing  them.  From  this 
was  but  a  step  to  a  paid  quartette,  and  the  struggle 


THE  CHURCH  MUSIC.  229 

over  this  last  means  of  improvement  and  pleasure  in 
church  music  is  of  too  recent  a  date  to  be  more  than 
referred  to. 

I  attended  a  church  service  not  many  years  ago 
in  Worcester,  where  an  old  clergyman,  the  venerable 
"  Father "  Allen,  of  Shrewsbury,  then  too  aged  and 
feeble  to  preach,  was  seated  in  the  front  pew  of  the 
church.  When  a  quartette  of  singers  began  to  render 
a  rather  operatic  arrangement  of  a  sacred  song  he 
rose,  erect  and  stately,  to  his  full  gaunt  height,  turned 
slowly  around  and  glanced  reproachfully  over  the 
frivolous,  backsliding  congregation,  wrapped  around 
his  spare,  lean  figure  his  full  cloak  of  quilted  black 
silk,  took  his  shovel  hat  and  his  cane,  and  stalked 
indignantly  and  sadly  the  whole  length  of  the  broad 
central  aisle,  out  of  the  church,  thus  making  a  last 
but  futile  protest  against  modern  innovations  in  church 
music.  Many,  in  whom  the  Puritan  instincts  and 
blood  are  still  strong,  sympathize  internally  with  him 
in  this  feeling ;  and  all  novelty-lovers  must  acknowl- 
edge that  the  sublime  simplicity  and  deep  piety  in 
which  the  old  Puritan  psalm-tunes  abound,  has  seldom 
been  attained  in  the  modern  church-songs.  Even 
persons  of  neither  musical  knowledge,  taste,  nor  love, 
feel  the  power  of  such  a  tune  as  Old  Hundred ;  and 
more  modern  and  more  difficult  melodies,  though 
they  charm  with  their  harmony  and  novelty,  can 
never  equal  it  in  impressiveness  nor  in  true  religious 
influence. 


XVI. 

THE  INTERRUPTIONS  OF  THE   SERVICES. 

THOUGH  the  Puritans  were  such  a  decorous,  orderly 
people,  their  religious  meetings  were  not  always  quiet 
and  uninterrupted.  We  know  the  torment  they  en- 
dured from  the  "  wretched  boys,"  and  they  were 
harassed  by  other  annoying  interruptions.  For  the 
preservation  of  peace  and  order  they  made  character- 
istic laws,  with  characteristic  punishments.  "  If  any 
interrupt  or  oppose  a  preacher  in  season  of  worship, 
they  shall  be  reproved  by  the  Magistrate,  and  on 
repetition,  shall  pay  <£5,  or  stand  two  hours  on  a 
block  four  feet  high,  with  this  inscription  in  Capitalls, 
'A  WANTON  GOSPELLER.'"  As  with  other  of 
their  severe  laws  the  rigid  punishment  provoked  the 
crime,  for  Wanton  Gospellers  abounded.  The  Bap- 
tists did  not  hesitate  to  state  their  characteristic 
belief  in  the  Puritan  meetings,  and  the  Quakers  or 
"  Foxians,"  as  they  were  often  called,  interrupted  and 
plagued  them  sorely.  Judge  Sewall  wrote,  in  1677, 
"A  female  quaker,  Margaret  Brewster,  in  sermon- 
time  came  in,  in  a  canvass  frock,  her  hair  dishevelled 
loose  like  a  Periwig,  her  face  as  black  as  ink,  led  by 
two  other  quakers,  and  two  other  quakers  followed. 


THE  INTERRUPTIONS  OF  THE  SERVICES.        231 

It  occasioned  the  greatest  and  most  amazing  uproar 
that  I  ever  saw."  More  grievous  irruptions  still  of 
scantily  clad  and  even  naked  Quaker  women  were 
made  into  other  Puritan  meetings ;  and  Quaker  men 
shouted  gloomily  in  through  the  church  windows, 
"  Woe !  Woe !  Woe  to  the  people ! "  and,  "  The  Lord 
will  destroy  thee ! "  and  they  broke  glass  bottles  be- 
fore the  minister's  very  face,  crying  out,  "  Thus  the 
Lord  will  break  thee  in  pieces ! "  and  they  came  into 
the  meeting-house,  in  spite  of  the  fierce  tithingman, 
and  sat  down  in  other  people's  seats  with  their  hats 
on  their  heads,  in  ash-covered  coats,  rocking  to  and 
fro  and  groaning  dismally,  as  if  in  a  mournful  obses- 
sion. Quaker  women  managed  to  obtain  admission 
to  the  churches,  and  they  jumped  up  in  the  quiet 
Puritan  assemblies  screaming  out,  "  Parson !  thou 
art  an  old  fool,"  and,  "  Parson !  thy  sermon  is  too 
long,"  and,  "  Parson!  sit  down  !  thee  has  already  said 
more  than  thee  knows  how  to  say  well,"  and  other 
unpleasant,  though  perhaps  truthful  personalities.  It 
is  hard  to  believe  that  the  poor,  excited,  screaming 
visionaries  of  those  early  days  belonged  to  the  same 
religious  sect  as  do  the  serene,  low-voiced,  sweet- 
faced,  and  retiring  Quakeresses  of  to-day.  And 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  astounding  and  meaning- 
less freaks  of  these  half-crazed  fanatics  were  pro- 
voked by  the  cruel  persecutions  which  they  endured 
from  our  much  loved  and  revered,  but  alas,  intol- 
erant and  far  from  perfect  Puritan  Fathers.  These 
poor  Quakers  were  arrested,  fined,  robbed,  stripped 


232   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

naked,  imprisoned,  laid  neck  and  heels,  chained  to 
logs  of  wood,  branded,  maimed,  whipped,  pilloried, 
caged,  set  in  the  stocks,  exiled,  sold  into  slavery 
and  hanged  by  our  stern  and  cruel  ancestors.  Per- 
haps some  gentle-hearted  but  timid  Puritan  souls 
may  have  inwardly  felt  that  the  Indian  wars,  and 
the  destructive  fires,  and  the  earthquakes,  and  the 
dead  cattle,  blasted  wheat,  and  wormy  peas,  were 
not  judgments  of  God  for  small  ministerial  pay  and 
periwig-wearing,  but  punishments  for  the  heartrend- 
ing woes  of  the  persecuted  Quakers. 

Others  than  the  poor  Quakers  spoke  out  in  colo- 
nial meetings.  In  Salem  village  and  in  other  witch- 
hunting  towns  the  crafty  "  victims "  of  the  witches 
were  frequently  visited  with  their  mock  pains  and 
sham  fits  in  the  meeting-houses,  and  they  called  out 
and  interrupted  the  ministers  most  vexingly.  Ann 
Putnam,  the  best  and  boldest  actress  among  those 
cunning  young  Puritan  witch-accusers,  the  protago- 
nist of  that  New  England  tragedy  known  as  the 
Salem  Witchcraft,  shouted  out  most  embarrassingly, 
"  There  is  a  yellow-bird  sitting  on  the  minister's  hat, 
as  it  hangs  on  the  pin  in  the  pulpit."  Mr.  Lawson, 
the  minister,  wrote  with  much  simplicity  that  "  these 
things  occurring  in  the  time  of  public  worship  did 
something  interrupt  me  in  my  first  prayer,  being 
so  unusual."  But  he  braced  himself  up  in  spite  of 
Ann  and  the  demoniacal  yellow-bird,  and  finished 
the  service.  These  disorderly  interruptions  occurred 
on  every  Lord's  Day,  growing  weekly  more  constant 


THE  INTERRUPTIONS  OF  THE  SERVICES.        233 

and  more  universal,  and  must  have  been  unbear- 
able. Some  few  disgusted  members  withdrew  from 
the  church,  giving  as  reason  that  uthe  distracting 
and  disturbing  tumults  and  noises  made  by  persons 
under  diabolical  power  and  delusions,  preventing 
sometimes  our  hearing  and  understanding  and  prof- 
iting of  the  word  preached ;  we  having  after  many 
trials  and  experiences  found  no  redress  in  this 
case,  accounted  ourselves  under  a  necessity  to  go 
where  we  might  hear  the  word  in  quiet."  These 
withdrawing  church -members  were  all  of  families 
that  contained  at  least  one  person  that  had  been 
accused  of  practising  witchcraft.  They  were  thus 
severely  intolerant  of  the  sacrilegious  and  lawless 
interruptions  of  the  shy  young  "  victims,"  who  re- 
ceived in  general  only  sympathy,  pity,  and  even 
stimulating  encouragement  from  their  deluded  and 
excited  neighbors. 

One  very  pleasing  interruption,  —  no,  I  cannot  call 
it  by  so  severe  a  name,  —  one  very  pleasing  diversion 
of  the  attention  of  the  congregation  from  the  parson 
was  caused  by  an  innocent  custom  that  prevailed  in 
many  a  country  community.  Just  fancy  the  flurry 
on  a  June  Sabbath  in  Killingly,  in  1785,  when  Joseph 
Gay,  clad  in  velvet  coat,  lace-frilled  shirt,  and  white 
broadcloth  knee-breeches,  with  his  fair  bride  of  a  few 
days,  gorgeous  in  a  peach-colored  silk  gown  and  a 
bonnet  trimmed  "  with  sixteen  yards  of  white  rib- 
bon," rose,  in  the  middle  of  the  sermon,  from  their 
front  seat  in  the  gallery  and  stood  for  several  min- 


234   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

utes,  slowly  turning  around  in  order  to  show  from 
every  point  of  view-  their  bridal  finery  to  the  eagerly 
gazing  congregation  of  friends  and  neighbors.  Such 
was  the  really  delightful  and  thoughtful  custom,  in 
those  fashion-plateless  days,  among  persons  of  wealth 
in  that  and  other  churches;  it  was.  in  fact,  part  of 
the  wedding  celebration.  Even  in  midwinter,  in  the 
icy  church,  the  blushing  bride  would  throw  aside  her 
broadcloth  cape  or  camblet  roquelo  and  stand  up  clad 
in  a  sprigged  India  muslin  gown  with  only  a  thin  lace 
tucker  over  her  neck,  warm  with  pride  in  her  pretty 
gown,  her  white  bonnet  with  ostrich  feathers  and 
embroidered  veil,  and  in  her  new  husband. 

The  services  in  the  meeting-house  on  the  Sabbath 
and  on  Lecture  days  were  sometimes  painfully  varied, 
though  scarcely  interrupted,  by  a  very  distressing  and 
harrowing  custom  of  public  abasement  and  self-abne- 
gation, which  prevailed  for  many  years  in  the  ner- 
vously religious  colonies.  It  was  not  an  enforced 
punishment,  but  a  voluntary  one.  Men  and  women 
who  had  committed  crimes  or  misdemeanors,  and 
who  had  sincerely  repented  of  their  sins,  or  who  were 
filled  with  remorse  for  some  violation  of  conscience, 
or  even  with  regret  for  some  neglect  of  religious 
ethics,  rose  in  the  Sabbath  meeting  before  the  as- 
sembled congregation  and  confessed  their  sins,  and 
humbly  asked  forgiveness  of  God,  and  charity  from 
their  fellows.  At  other  times  they  stood  with  down- 
cast heads  while  the  minister  read  their  confession  of 
guilt  and  plea  for  forgiveness.  A  most  graphic  account 


THE  INTERRUPTIONS  OF  THE  SERVICES.        235 

of  one  of  those  painful  scenes  is  thus  given  by  Gover- 
nor Winthrop  in  his  "  History  of  New  England :  "  — 

"  Captain  Underbill  being  brought  by  the  blessing  of 
God  in  this  church's  censure  of  excommunication,  to  re- 
morse for  his  foul  sins,  obtained,  by  means  of  the  elders, 
and  others  of  the  church  of  Boston,  a  safe  conduct  under 
the  hand  of  the  governor  and  one  of  the  council  to  re- 
pair to  the  church.  He  came  at  the  time  of  the  court  of 
assistants,  and  upon  the  lecture  day,  after  sermon,  the 
pastor  called  him  forth  and  declared  the  occasion,  and 
then  gave  him  leave  to  speak  :  and  indeed  it  was  a  specta- 
cle which  caused  many  weeping  eyes,  though  it  afforded 
matter  of  much  rejoicing  to  behold  the  power  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  in  his  ordinances,  when  they  are  dispensed  in  his 
own  way,  holding  forth  the  authority  of  his  regal  sceptre 
in  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel.  He  came  in  his  worst 
clothes  (being  accustomed  to  take  great  pride  in  his 
bravery  and  neatness)  without  a  band,  in  a  foul  linen 
cap  pulled  close  to  his  eyes;  and  standing  upon  a  form, 
he  did,  with  many  deep  sighs  and  abundance  of  tears, 
lay  open  his  wicked  course,  his  adultery,  his  hypocrisy, 
his  persecution  of  God's  people  here,  and  especially  his 
pride  (as  the  root  of  all  which  caused  God  to  give  him 
over  to  his  other  sinful  courses)  and  contempt  of  the 
magistrates.  .  .  .  He  spake  well  save  that  his  blubber- 
ing &c  interrupted  him,  and  all  along  he  discovered  a 
broken  and  melting  heart  and  gave  good  exhortations  to 
take  heed  of  such  vanities  and  beginnings  of  evil  as  had 
occasioned  his  fall ;  and  in  the  end  he  earnestly  and  hum- 
bly besought  the  church  to  have  compassion  of  him  and 
to  deliver  him  out  of  the  hands  of  Satan." 


236       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

What  a  picture !  what  a  story  !  "  Of  all  tales  't  is 
the  saddest  —  and  more  sad  because  it  makes  us 
smile." 

Captain  John  Underbill  was  a  brave  though  some- 
what bumptious  soldier,  who  had  fought  under  the 
Prince  of  Orange  in  the  War  of  the  Netherlands,  and 
had  been  employed  as  temporal  drill-master  in  the 
church-militant  in  New  England.  He  did  good  ser- 
vice for  the  colonists  in  the  war  with  the  Pequot  In- 
dians, and  indeed  wherever  there  was  any  fighting  to 
be  done.  "  He  thrust  about  and  justled  into  fame." 
He  also  managed  to  have  apparently  a  very  good  time 
in  the  new  land,  both  in  sinning  and  repenting.  When 
he  stood  up  on  the  church-seat  before  the  horrified, 
yet  wide-open  eyes  of  pious  Boston  folk,  in  his  studi- 
ously and  theatrically  disarranged  garments,  and  blub- 
bered  out  Ms  whining  yet  vain-glorious  repentance, 
he  doubtless  acted  his  part  well,  for  he  had  twice 
before  been  through  the  same  performance,  supple- 
menting his  second  rehearsal  by  kneeling  down  before 
an  injured  husband  in  the  congregation  and  asking 
earthly  forgiveness.  I  wish  I  could  believe  that  this 
final  repentance  of  the  resilient  captain  were  sincere 
—  but  I  cannot.  Nor  did  Boston  people  believe  it 
either,  though  that  noble  and  generous-minded  man, 
Winthrop,  thought  he  saw  at  the  time  of  confession 
evidences  of  a  truly  contrite  heart.  The  Puritans 
sternly  and  eagerly  cast  out  the  gay  captain  to  the 
Dutch  when  he  became  an  Antinomian,  and  he  came 
to  live  and  fight  and  gallant  in  a  town  on  the  western 


THE  INTERRUPTIONS  OF   THE  SERVICES.        237 

end  of  Long  Island,  where  he  perhaps  found  a  church- 
home  with  members  less  severe  and  less  sharp-eyed 
than  those  of  his  Boston  place  of  martyrdom,  and  a 
people  less  inclined  to  resent  and  punish  his  frailties 
and  his  ways  of  amusing  himself. 

In  justice  to  Underbill  (or  perhaps  to  show  his 
double-dealing)  I  will  say  that  he  left  behind  him  a 
letter  to  Hanserd  Knollys,  complaining  of  the  ill- 
treatment  he  had  received ;  and  in  it  he  gives  a  very 
different  account  of  this  little  affair  with  the  Boston 
Church  from  that  given  us  by  Governor  Winthrop. 
The  offender  says  nothing  about  his  hypocrisy,  his 
public  and  self-abasing  confession,  nor  of  his  sanc- 
timonious blubbering  and  wishes  for  death.  He  ex- 
plains that  his  offence  was  mild  and  purely  mental, 
that  in  an  infaust  moment  he  glanced  (doubtless 
stared  soldier-fashion)  at  "  Mistris  Miriam  Wildbore  " 
as  she  sat  in  her  "  pue  "  at  meeting.  The  elders, 
noting  his  admiring  and  amorous  glances,  there- 
upon accused  him  of  sin  in  his  heart,  and  severely 
asked  him  why  he  did  not  look  instead  at  Mistress 
Newell  or  Mistress  Upham.  He  replied  very  spir- 
itedly and  pertinently  that  these  dames  were  "  not 
desiryable  women  as  to  temporal  graces,"  which  was 
certainly  sufficient  and  proper  reason  for  any  man 
to  give,  were  he  Puritan  or  Cavalier.  Then  acerb 
old  John  Cotton  and  some  other  Boston  ascetics 
(perhaps  Goodman  Newell  and  Goodman  Upham,  re- 
senting for  their  wives  the  spretce  injuria  formce)  at 
once  hunted  up  some  plainly  applicable  verses  from 


238        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

the  Bible  that  clearly  proved  him  guilty  of  the  alleged 
sin  —  and  summarily  excommunicated  him.  He  also 
wrote  that  the  pious  church  complained  that  the 
attractive,  the  temporally  graced  Mistress  Wildbore 
came  vainly  and  over-bravely  clad  to  meeting,  with 
"  wanton  open- worked  gloves  slitt  at  the  thumbs  and 
fingers  for  the  purpose  of  taking  snuff,"  and  he  re- 
sented this  complaint  against  the  fair  one,  saying  no 
harm  could  surely  come  from  indulging  in  the  "  good 
creature  called  tobacco."  He  would  naturally  feel 
that  snuff-taking  was  a  proper  and  suitable  church- 
custom,  since  his  own  conversion,  —  dubious  though  it 
was,  —  his  religious  belief  had  come  to  him,  "  the  spirit 
fell  home  upon  his  heart "  while  lie  was  indulging  in 
a  quiet  smoke. 

The  story  of  his  offences  as  told  by  his  contempo- 
raries does  not  assign  to  him  so  innocuous  a  diversion 
as  staring  across  the  meeting-house,  but  the  account 
is  quite  as  amusing  as  his  own  plaintive  and  deeply 
injured  version  of  his  arraignment. 

Other  letters  of  his  have  been  preserved  to  us, — 
letters  blustering  as  was  Ancient  Pistol,  and  equally 
sanctimonious,  letters  fearfully  and  phonetically  spelt. 
Here  is  the  opening  of  a  letter  written  while  he  was 
under  sentence  of  excommunication  from  the  Boston 
Church,  and  of  banishment.  It  is  to  Governor  Win- 
throp,  his  friend  and  fellow-emigrant :  - 

"  Honnored  in  the  Lord,  — 

"Your  silenc  one  more  admirse  me.  I  Youse  cliris- 
chan  playnnes.  I  know  you  love  it.  ...  Silenc  can  not 


THE  INTERRUPTIONS  OF  THE   SERVICES.        239 

reduce  the  hart  of  youer  lovd  brother  :  I  would  the  right- 
chous  would  smite  me  espechali  youerslfe  &  the  honnered 
Depot!  to  whom  I  also  dereckt  this  letter.  ...  I  would 
to  God  you  would  tender  me  soule  so  as  to  youse  playnnes 
with  me.  I  wrot  to  you  both  but  now  answer  :  &  here  I 
am  dayli  abused  by  malishous  tongue.  John  Baker  I  here 
hath  wrot  to  the  honnored  depoti  how  as  I  was  dronck  & 
like  to  be  cild  &  both  f  ale,  upon  okachon  I  delt  with  Wan- 
nerton  for  intrushon  &  findding  them  resolutli  bent  to  rout 
all  gud  a  mong  us  &  advanc  there  superstischous  ways 
&  by  boystrous  words  indeferd  to  fritten  men  to  accom- 
plish his  end.  &  he  abusing  me  to  my  face,  dru  upon  him 
with  intent  to  corb  his  insolent  &  dastardli  sperrite.  .  .  . 
Ister  daye  on  Pickeren  their  Chorch  Warden  cairn  up  to 
us  with  intent  to  make  some  of  ourse  drone  as  is  sos- 
peckted  but  the  Lord  sofered  him  so  to  misdemen  himslfe 
as  he  is  likli  to  li  by  the  hielse  this  too  month.  .  .  .  My 
homble  request  is  that  you  will  be  charitable  of  me.  .  .  . 
Let  justies  and  merci  be  goyned.  .  .  .  You  may  plese 
to  soggest  youer  will  to  this  barrer  you  will  find  him 
tracktabel." 

My  sense  of  drollery  is  always  most  keenly  tickled 
when  I  read  Underbill's  epistles,  with  their  amazing 
and  highly-varied  letter- concoctions,  and  remember 
that  he  also  wrote  a  book.  What  that  seventeenth- 
century  printer  and  proof-reader  endured  ere  they 
presented  his  "  edited "  volume  to  the  public  must 
have  been  beyond  expression  by  words.  It  was  a 
pretty  good  book  though,  and  in  it.  like  many  another 
man  of  his  ilk,  he  tendered  to  his  much-injured  wife 
loud  and  diffuse  praise,  ending  with  these  sententious 


240       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

words, "  Let  no  man  despise  advice  and  counsel  of  his 
wife  —  though  she  be  a  woman." 

And  yet,  upon  careful  examination  we  find  a 
method,  a  system,  in  Underbill's  orthography,  or 
rather  in  his  cacography.  He  thinks  a  final  tiou 
should  be  spelt  chon  —  and  why  not  ?  "  proposichon," 
"  satisfackchon,"  "  oblegachon,"  "  persekuchon,"  "  de- 
reckchon,"  "  himelyachon "  —  thus  he  spells  such 
words.  And  his  plurals  are  plain  when  once  you 
grasp  his  laws  :  "  poseschonse "  and  "  considdera- 
chonse,"  "  facktse,"  and  "  respecktse."  And  his 
ly  is  always  li,  "  exacktli,"  "thorroli,"  "fidelliti," 
"charriti,"  "falsciti."  And  why  is  not  "indiered," 
as  good  as  '  endeared,'  "  pregedic,"  as  '  prejudice,' 
"  obstrucktter "  as  «  obstructer,'  "  pascheges,"  and 
"  prouydentt,"  and  "  antyentt,"  just  as  clear  as  our 
own  way  of  spelling  these  words  ?  A  "  painful " 
speller  you  surely  were,  my  gay  Don  Juan  Under- 
bill, as  your  pedantic  "  writtingse "  all  show,  and 
the  most  dramatic  and  comic  figure  among  all  the 
early  Puritans  as  well,  though  you  scarcely  deserve 
to  be  called  a  Puritan ;  we  might  rather  say  of  you, 
as  of  Malvolio,  uThe  devil  a  Puritan  that  he  was, 
or  anything  constantly  but  a  time-pleaser  ...  his 
ground  of  faith  that  all  who  looked  on  him  loved 
him." 

In  keen  contrast  to  this  sentimental  excitement  is 
the  presence  of  noble  Judge  Sewall,  white-haired  and 
benignant,  standing  up  calmly  in  Boston  meeting, 
with  dignified  face  and  demeanor,  but  an  aching  and 


THE  INTERRUPTIONS  OF  THE  SERVICES.        241 

contrite  heart,  to  ask  through  the  voice  of  his  min- 
ister humble  forgiveness  of  God  and  man  for  his  sad 
share  as  a  judge  in  the  unjust  and  awful  condemna- 
tion and  cruel  sentencing  to  death  of  the  poor  mur- 
dered victims  of  that  terrible  delusion  the  Salem 
Witchcraft.  Years  of  calm  and  unshrinking  reflec- 
tion, of  pleading  and  constant  communion  with  God 
had  brought  to  him  an  overwhelming  sense  of  his 
mistaken  and  over-influenced  judgment,  and  a  horror 
and  remorse  for  the  fatal  results  of  his  error.  Then, 
like  the  steadfast  and  upright  old  Puritan  that  he 
was,  he  publicly  acknowledged  his  terrible  mistake. 
It  is  one  of  the  finest  instances  of  true  nobility  of 
soul  and  of  absolute  self-renunciation  that  the  world 
affords.  And  the  deep  strain,  the  sharp  wrench  of 
the  step  is  made  more  apparent  still  by  the  fact  of 
the  disapproval  of  his  fellow-judges  of  his  public 
confession  and  recantation.  The  yearly  entries  in 
his  diary,  simply  expressed  yet  deeply  speaking, 
entries  of  the  prayerful  fasts  which  he  spent  alone 
in  his  chamber  when  the  anniversary  of  the  fatal 
judgment-day  returned,  show  that  no  half-vain  big- 
otry, no  emotional  excitement  filled  and  moved  him 
to  the  open  words  of  remorse.  The  lesson  of  his 
repentance  is  farther  reaching  than  he  dreamed, 
when  the  story  of  his  confession  can  so  move  and 
affect  this  nineteenth-century  generation,  and  fill 
more  than  one  soul  with  a  nobler  idea  of  the  Puri- 
tan nature,  and  with  a  higher  and  fuller  conception 
of  the  absolute  truth  of  the  Puritan  Christianity. 

16 


242   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Some  very  prosaic  and  earthly  interruptions  to  the 
church  services  are  recorded  as  being  made,  and  possi- 
bly by  the  church-members  themselves.  In  one  church, 
in  1661,  a  fine  of  five  shillings  was  imposed  on  any  one 
"  who  shot  off  a  gun  or  led  a  horse  into  the  meeting- 
house." These  seem  to  me  quite  as  unseemly,  irrev- 
erent, and  disagreeable  disturbances  as  shouting  out, 
Quaker-fashion,  "  Parson,  your  sermon  is  too  long ; " 
but  possibly  the  house  of  God  was  turned  into  a  stable 
on  week-days,  not  on  the  Sabbath. 

In  many  parishes  church-attendants  were  fined  who 
brought  their  "  doggs  "  into  the  meeting-house.  Dogs 
swarmed  in  the  colony,  for  they  had  been  imported 
from  England,  "  sufficient  mastive  dogs,  hounds  and 
beagles,"  and  also  Irish  wolf-hounds  ;  and  they  caused 
an  interruption  in  one  afternoon  service  by  chasing 
into  the  meeting-house  one  of  those  pungently  offen- 
sive, though  harmless,  animals  that  abounded  even  in 
the  earliest  colonial  days,  and  whose  mephitic  odor, 
in  this  case,  had  power  to  scatter  the  congregation 
as  effectively  as  would  have  a  score  of  armed  Indian 
braves.  Officially  appointed  "  Dogg-whippers  "  and 
the  never  idle  tithingman  expelled  the  intruding  and 
unwelcome  canine  attendants  from  the  meeting-house 
with  fierce  blows  and  fiercer  yelps.  The  swarming 
dogs,  though  they  were  trained  to  hunt  the  Indians 
and  wolves  and  tear  them  in  pieces,  were  much 
fonder  of  hunting  and  tearing  the  peaceful  sheep, 
and  thus  became  such  unmitigated  nuisances,  out 
of  meeting  as  well  as  in,  that  they  had  to  be  muzzled 


THE  INTERRUPTIONS  OF  THE  SERVICES.        243 

and  hobbled,  and  killed,  and  land  was  granted  (as  in 
Newbury  in  1703)  on  condition  that  no  dog  was  ever 
kept  thereon.  As  late  as  the  year  1820,  it  was 
ordered  in  the  town  of  Brewster  that  any  dog  that 
came  into  meeting  should  be  killed  unless  the  owner 
promised  to  thenceforth  keep  the  intruder  out. 

Alarms  of  fire  in  the  neighborhood  frequently  dis- 
turbed the  quiet  of  the  early  colonial  services;  for 
the  combustible  catted  chimneys  were  a  constant 
source  of  conflagration,  especially  on  Sundays,  when 
the  fireplaces  with  their  roaring  fires  were  left  un- 
watched ;  and  all  the  men  rushed  out  of  the  meet- 
ing at  sound  of  the  alarm  to  aid  in  quenching  the 
flames,  which  could  however  be  ill-fought  with  the 
scanty  supply  of  water  that  could  be  brought  in  a 
few  leathetn  fire-buckets  and  milk-pails, —  though  at 
a  very  early  date  as  an  aid  in  extinguishing  fires 
each  New  England  family  was  ordered  by  law  to 
own  a  fire-ladder.  Occasionally  the  town's  ladder 
and  poles  and  hooks  and  cedar-buckets  were  kept  in 
the  meeting-house,  and  thus  were  handy  for  Synday 
fires. 

Sometimes  armed  men,  bearing  rumors  of  wars  and 
of  hostile  attacks,  rode  clattering  up  to  the  church- 
door,  and  strode  with  jingling  spurs  and  rattling 
swords  into  the  excited  assembly  with  appeal  for 
more  soldiers  to  bear  arms,  or  fcj  more  help  for 
those  already  in  the  army,  and  the  whole  congrega- 
tion felt  it  no  interruption  but  a  high  religious  privi- 
lege and  duty,  to  which  they  responded  in  word  and 


244        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

deed.  On  some  happy  Sabbaths  the  armed  riders 
bore  good  news  of  great  victories,  and  great  was 
the  rejoicing  thereat  in  prayer  and  praise  in  the  old 
meeting-house. 

But  usually  through  the  Sabbath  services,  though 
the  quiet  was  not  that  of  our  modern  carpeted,  cush- 
ioned, orderly  churches,  but  few  interrupting  sounds 
were  heard.  The  cry  of  a  waking  infant,  the  scrap- 
ing of  restless  feet  on  the  sanded  floor,  the  lumber- 
ing noise  of  the  motions  of  a  cramped  farmer  as  he 
stood  up  to  lean  over  the  pew-door  or  gallery-rail, 
the  clatter  of  an  overturned  cricket,  the  twittering 
of  swallows  in  the  rafters,  and  in  the  summer-time 
the  bumping  and  buzzing  of  an  invading  bumble-bee 
as  he  soared  through  the  air  and  against  the  walls, 
were  the  only  sounds  within  the  meeting-house  that 
broke  the  monotonous  "  thirteenthly "  and  "  four- 
teenthly  "  of  the  minister's  sermon. 


XVII. 
THE   OBSERVANCE   OF  THE  DAY. 

THE  so-called  "  False  Blue  Laws  "  of  Connecticut, 
which  were  foisted  upon  the  public  by  the  Reverend 
Samuel  Peters,  have  caused  much  indignation  among 
all  thoughtf ul  descendants  and  all  lovers  of  New  Eng- 
land Puritans.  Three  of  his  most  bitterly  resented 
false  laws  which  refer  to  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
read  thus :  — 

"  No  one  shall  travel,  cook  victuals,  make  beds,  sweep 
house,  cut  hair,  or  shave  on  the  Sabbath  Day. 

"  No  woman  shall  kiss  her  child  on  the  Sabbath  or 
fasting  day. 

"  No  one  shall  ride  on  the  Sabbath  Day,  or  walk  in 
his  garden  or  elsewhere  except  reverently  to  and  from 
meeting." 

Though  these  laws  were  worded  by  Dr.  Peters,  and 
though  we  are  disgusted  to  hear  them  so  often  quoted 
as  historical  facts,  still  we  must  acknowledge  that 
though  in  detail  not  correct,  they  are  in  spirit  true 
records  of  the  old  Puritan  laws  which  were  enacted 
to  enforce  the  strict  and  decorous  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  and  which  were  valid  not  only  in  Con- 


246  THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

necticut  and  Massachusetts,  but  in  other  New  Eng- 
land States.  Even  a  careless  glance  at  the  historical 
record  of  any  old  town  or  church  will  give  plenty  of 
details  to  prove  this. 

Thus  in  New  London  we  find  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century  a  wicked  fisherman  presented 
before  the  Court  and  fined  for  catching  eels  on  Sun- 
day ;  another  "  fined  twenty  shillings  for  sailing  a  boat 
on  the  Lord's  Day ; "  while  in  1670  two  lovers,  John 
Lewis  and  Sarah  Chapman,  were  accused  of  and  tried 
for"  sitting  together  on  the  Lord's  Day  under  an  apple 
tree  in  Goodman  Chapman's  Orchard,"  —  so  harmless 
and  so  natural  an  act.  In  Plymouth  a  man  was 
"  sharply  whipped "  for  shooting  fowl  on  Sunday ; 
another  was  fined  for  carrying  a  grist  of  corn  home 
on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  the  miller  who  allowed  him 
to  take  it  was  also  fined.  Elizabeth  Eddy  of  the  same 
town  was  fined,  in  1652,  "  ten  shillings  for  wringing 
and  hanging  out  clothes."  A  Plymouth  man,  for 
attending  to  his  tar-pits  on  the  Sabbath,  was  set  in 
the  stocks.  James  Watt,  in  1658,  was  publicly  re- 
proved "  for  writing  a  note  about  common  business 
on  the  Lord's  Day,  at  least  in  the  evening  somewhat 
too  soon."  A  Plymouth  man  who  drove  a  yoke  of 
oxen  was  "  presented "  before  the  Court,  as  was  also 
another  offender,  who  drove  some  cows  a  short  dis- 
.tance  "  without  need  "  on  the  Sabbath. 

In  Newbury,  in  1646,  Aquila  Chase  and  his  wife 
were  presented  and  fined  for  gathering  peas  from 
their  garden  on  the  Sabbath,  but  upon  investigation 


THE  OBSERVANCE  OF  THE  DAY.  247 

the  fines  were  remitted,  and  the  offenders  were  only 
admonished.  In  Wareham,  in  1772,  William  Estes 
acknowledged  himself  "  Gilty  of  Racking  Hay  on  the 
Lord's  Day  "  and  was  fined  ten  shillings ;  and  in  1774 
another  Wareham  citizen,  "  for  a  breach  of  the  Sab- 
bath in  puling  apples,"  was  fined  five  shillings.  A 
Dunstable  soldier,  for  "  wetting  a  piece  of  an  old  hat 
to  put  in  his  shoe  "  to  protect  his  foot  —  for  doing 
this  piece  of  heavy  work  on  the  Lord's  Day,  was  fined, 
and  paid  forty  shillings. 

Captain  Kemble  of  Boston  was  in  1656  set  for  two 
hours  in  the  public  stocks  for  his  "  lewd  and  unseemly 
behavior,"  which  consisted  in  his  kissing  his  wife 
"  publicquely  "  on  the  Sabbath  Day,  upon  the  door- 
step of  his  house,  when  he  had  just  returned  from  a 
voyage  and  absence  of  three  years.  The  lewd  offender 
was  a  man  of  wealth  and  influence,  the  father  of 
Madam  Sarah  Knights,  the  "  fearfull  female  trav- 
ailler  "  whose  diary  of  a  journey  from  Boston  to  New 
York  and  return,  written  in  1704,  rivals  in  quality  if 
not  in  quantity  Judge  Sewall's  much-quoted  diary. 
A  traveller  named  Burnaby  tells  of  a  similar  offence 
of  an  English  sea-captain  who  was  soundly  whipped 
for  kissing  his  wife  on  the  street  of  a  New  England 
town  on  Sunday,  and  of  his  retaliation  in  kind,  by  a 
clever  trick  upon  his  chastisers ;  but  Burnaby's  narra- 
tive always  seemed  to  me  of  dubious  credibility. 

Abundant  proof  can  be  given  that  the  act  of  the 
legislature  in  1649  was  not  a  dead  letter  which  or- 
dered that  "  whosoever  shall  prophane  the  Lords  daye 


248         THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

by  doeing  any  seruill  worke  or  such  like  abusses 
shall  forfeite  for  euery  such  default  ten  shillings 
or  be  whipt." 

The  Vermont u  Blue  Book"  contained  equally  sharp 
"  Sunday  laws."  Whoever  was  guilty  of  any  rude, 
profane,  or  unlawful  conduct  on  the  Lord's  Day,  in 
words  or  action,  by  clamorous  discourses,  shouting, 
hallooing,  screaming,  running,  riding,  dancing,  jump- 
ing, was  to  be  fined  forty  shillings  and  whipped  upon 
the  naked  back  not  to  exceed  ten  stripes.  The  New 
Haven  code  of  laws,  more  severe  still,  ordered  that 
"  Profanation  of  the  Lord's  Day  shall  be  punished  by 
fine,  imprisonment,  or  corporeal  punishment ;  and  if 
proudly,  and  with  a  high  hand  against  the  authority 
of  God  —  with  death." 

Lists  of  arrests  and  fines  for  walking  and  travel- 
ling unnecessarily  on  the  Sabbath  might  be  given  in 
great  numbers,  and  it  was  specially  ordered  that  none 
should  "  ride  violently  to  and  from  meeting."  Many 
a  pious  New  Englander,  in  olden  days,  was  fined  for 
his  ungodly  pride,  and  his  desire  to  "show  off"  his 
"  new  colt "  as  he  "  rode  violently  "  up  to  the  meet- 
ing-house green  on  Sabbath  morn.  One  offender 
explained  in  excuse  of  his  unnecessary  driving  on 
the  Sabbath  that  he  had  been  to  visit  a  sick  rela- 
tive, but  his  excuse  was  not  accepted.  A  Maine 
man  who  was  rebuked  and  fined  for  "  unseemly 
walking"  on  the  Lord's  Day  protested  that  he  ran 
to  save  a  man  from  drowning.  The  Court  made 
him  pay  his  fine,  but  ordered  that  the  money  should 


THE   OBSERVANCE  OF  THE  DAY.  249 

be  returned  to  him  when  he  could  prove  by  wit- 
nesses that  he  had  been  on  that  errand  of  mercy 
and  duty.  As  late  as  the  year  1831,  in  Lebanon, 
Connecticut,  a  lady  journeying  to  her  father's  home 
was  arrested  within  sight  of  her  father's  house  for 
unnecessary  travelling  on  the  Sabbath ;  and  a  long 
and  fiercely  contested  lawsuit  was  the  result,  and 
damages  were  finally  given  for  false  imprisonment. 
In  1720  Samuel  Sabin  complained  of  himself  before 
a  justice  in  Norwich  that  he  visited  on  Sabbath  night 
some  relatives  at  a  neighbor's  house.  His  morbidly 
tender  conscience  smote  him  and  made  him  "  fear 
he  had  transgressed  the  law,"  though  he  felt  sure 
no  harm  had  been  done  thereby.  In  1659  Sam 
Clarke,  for  "  Hankering  about  on  men's  gates  on 
Sabbath  evening  to  draw  company  out  to  him,"  was 
reproved  and  warned  not  to  "  harden  his  neck  "  and 
be  "  wholly  destroyed."  Poor  stiff-necked,  lonely, 
"  hankering "  Sam  !  to  be  so  harshly  reproved  for 
his  harmlessly  sociable  intents.  Perhaps  he  "  han- 
kered ''  after  the  Puritan  maids,  and  if  so,  deserved 
his  reproof  and  the  threat  of  annihilation. 

Sabbath-breaking  by  visiting  abounded  in  staid 
Worcester  town  to  a  most  base  extent,  but  was 
severely  punished,  as  local  records  show.  In  Bel- 
fast, Maine,  in  1776,  a  meeting  was  held  to  get  the 
"  Towns  Mind "  with  regard  to  a  plan  to  restrain 
visiting  on  the  Sabbath.  The  time  had  passed  when 
such  offences,  could  be  punished  either  by  fine  or 
imprisonment,  so  it  was  voted  "  that  it  any  person 


250        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

makes  unnecessary  Yizits  on  the  Sabeth,  They  shall 
be  Look't  on  with  Contempt."  This  was  the  uni- 
versal expression  throughout  the  Puritan  colonies ; 
and  looked  on  with  contempt  are  Sabbath-breakers  and 
Sabbath-slighters  in  New  England  to  the  present  day. 
Even  if  they  committed  no  active  offence,  the  colo- 
nists could  not  passively  neglect  the  Church  and  its 
duties.  As  late  as  1774  the  First  Church  of  Roxbury 
fined  non-attendance  at  public  worship.  In  1651 
Thomas  Scott  "  was  fyned  ten  shillings  unless  he 
have  learned  Mr.  Norton's  <  Chatacise '  by  the  next 
court'."  In  1760  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts 
passed  the  law  that  "  any  person  able  of  Body  who 
shall  absent  themselves  from  publick  worship  of 
God  on  the  Lord's  Day  shall  pay  ten  shillings  fine." 
By  the  Connecticut  code  ten  shillings  was  the  fine, 
and  the  law  was  not  suspended  until  the  year  1770. 
By  the  New  Haven  code  five  shillings  was  the  fine  for 
non-attendance  at  church,  and  the  offender  was  often 
punished  as  well.  Captain  Dennison,  one  of  New 
Haven's  most  popular  and  respected  citizens,  was 
fined  fifteen  shillings  for  absence  from  church.  Wil- 
liam Blagden,  who  lived  in  New  Haven  in  1647,  was 
"  brought  up  "  for  absence  from  meeting.  He  pleaded 
that  he  had  fallen  into  the  water  late  on  Saturday, 
could  light  no  fire  on  Sunday  to  dry  his  clothes,  and 
so  had  lain  in  bed  to  keep  warm  while  his  only  suit  of 
garments  was  drying.  In  spite  of  this  seemingly  fail- 
excuse,  Blagden  was  found  guilty  of  "  sloathefulness  " 
and  sentenced  to  be  "  publiquely  whipped."  Of  course 


THE  OBSEK VANCE  OF  THE  DAY.  251 

the  Quakers  contributed  liberally  to  the  support  of 
the  Court,  and  were  fined  in  great  numbers  for  refus- 
ing to  attend  the  church  which  they  hated,  and  which 
also  warmly  abhorred  them  ;  and  they  were  zealously 
set  in  the  stocks,  and  whipped  and  caged  and  pilloried 
as  well,  —  whipped  if  they  came  and  expressed  any 
dissatisfaction,  and  whipped  if  they  stayed  away. 

Severe  and  explicit  were  the  orders  with  regard  to 
the  use  of  the  "Creature  called  Tobacko"  on  the 
Sabbath.  In  the  very  earliest  days  of  the  colony 
means  had  been  taken  to  prevent  the  planting  of  the 
pernicious  weed  except  in  very  small  quantities  "  for 
meere  necessitie,  for  phisick,  for  preseruaceon  of 
health,  and  that  the  same  be  taken  privatly  by 
auncient  men."  In  Connecticut  a  man  could  by  per- 
mission of  the  law  smoke  once  if  he  went  on  a  jour- 
ney of  ten  miles  (as  some  slight  solace  for  the  arduous 
trip),  but  never  more  than  once  a  day,  and  never  in 
another  man's  house.  Let  us  hope  that  on  their  lonely 
journeys  they  conscientiously  obeyed  the  law,  though 
we  can  but  suspect  that  the  one  unsocial  smoke 
may  have  been  a  long  one.  In  some  communities 
the  colonists  could  not  plant  tobacco,  nor  buy  it, 
nor  sell  it,  but  since  they  loved  the  fascinating  weed 
then  as  men  love  it  now,  they  somehow  invoked  or 
spirited  it  into  their  pipes,  though  they  never  could 
smoke  it  in  public  unfined  and  unpunished.  The 
shrewd  and  thrifty  New  Haven  people  permitted  the 
raising  of  it  for  purpos'es  of  trade,  though  not  for 
use,  thus  supplying  the  "devil's  weed"  to  others, 


252        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW-ENGLAND. 

chiefly  the  godless  Dutch,  but  piously  spurning  it 
themselves  —  in  public.  Its  use  was  absolutely  for- 
bidden under  any  circumstances  on  the  Sabbath  with- 
in two  miles  of  the  meeting-house,  which  (since  at  that 
date  all  the  homes  were  clustered  around  the  church- 
green)  was  equivalent  to  not  smoking  it  at  all  on 
the  Lord's  Day,  if  the  law  were  obeyed.  But  wicked 
backsliders  existed,  poor  slaves  of  habit,  who  were  in 
Duxbury  fined  ten  shillings  for  each  offence,  and  in 
Portsmouth,  not  only  were  fined,  but  to  their  shame  be 
it  told,  set  as  jail-birds  in  the  Portsmouth  cage.  In 
Sandwich  and  in  Boston  the  fine  for  "  drinking  to- 
bacco in  the  meeting-house"  was  five  shillings  for 
each  drink,  which  I  take  to  mean  chewing  tobacco 
rather  than  smoking  it;  many  men  were  fined  for 
thus  drinking,  and  solacing  the  weary  hours,  though 
doubtless  they  were  as  sly  and  kept  themselves  as 
unobserved  as  possible.  Four  Yarmouth  men  —  old 
sea-dogs,  perhaps,  who  loved  their  pipe — were,  in  1687, 
fined  four  shillings  each  for  smoking  tobacco  around 
the  end  of  the  meeting-house.  Silly,  ostrich-brained 
Yarmouth  men !  to  fancy  to  escape  detection  by  hid- 
ing around  the  corner  of  the  church ;  and  to  think 
that  the  tithingman  had  no  nose  when  he  was  so 
Argus-eyed.  Some  few  of  the  ministers  used  the 
"tobacco  weed."  Mr.  Baily  wrote  with  distress  of 
mind  and  abasement  of  soul  in  his  diary  of  his  "  ex- 
ceeding in  tobacco."  The  hatred  of  the  public  use  of 
tobacco  lingered  long  in  New  England,  even  in  large 
towns  such  as  Providence,  though  chiefly  on  account 


THE  OBSERVANCE  OF  THE  DAY.  253 

of  universal  dread  lest  sparks  from  the  burning  weed 
should  start  conflagrations  in  the  towns.  Until  within 
a  few  years,  in  small  towns  in  western  Massachusetts, 
Easthampton  and  neighboring  villages,  tobacco-smok- 
ing on  the  street  was  not  permitted  either  on  week- 
days or  Sundays. 

Not  content  with  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath- 
day  alone,  the  Puritans  included  Saturday  evening  in 
their  holy  day,  and  in  the  first  colonial  years  these 
instructions  were  given  to  Governor  Endicott  by  the 
Xew  England  Plantation  Company  :  "  And  to  the  end 
that  the  Sabeth  may  be  celebrated  in  a  religious  man 
ner  wee  appoint  that  all  may  surcease  their  labor  every 
Satterday  throughout  the  yeare  at  three  of  the  clock 
in  the  afternoone,  and  that  they  spend  the  rest  of  the 
day  in  chatechizing  and  preparaceon  for  the  Sabeth 
as  the  ministers  shall  direct."  Cotton  Mather  wrote 
thus  of  his  grandfather,  old  John  Cotton  :  "  The  Sab- 
bath he  begun  the  evening  before,  for  which  keeping 
from  evening  to  evening  he  wrote  arguments  before 
his  coming  to  New  England,  and  I  suppose  'twas 
from  his  reason  and  practice  that  the  Christians  of 
New  England  have  generally  done  so  too."  He  then 
tells  of  the  protracted  religious  services  held  in  the 
Cotton  household  every  Saturday  night,  —  services  so 
long  that  the  Sabbath-day  exercises  must  have  seemed 
in  comparison  like  a  light  interlude. 

John  Norton  described  these  Cotton  Sabbaths  more 
briefly  thus :  "  He  [John  Cotton]  began  the  Sabbath 
at  evening;  therefore  then  performed  family-duty 


254        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

after  supper,  being  longer  than  ordinary  in  Exposi- 
tion. After  which  he  catechized  his  children  and 
servants  and  then  returned  unto  his  stud}*.  The 
morning  following,  family-worship  being  ended,  he 
retired  into  his  study  until  the  bell  called  him  away. 
Upon  his  return  from  meeting  he  returned  again  into 
his  study  (the  place  of  his  labor  and  prayer)  unto  his 
private  devotion ;  where,  having  a  small  repast  car- 
ried him  up  for  his  dinner,  he  continued  until  the 
tolling  of  the  bell.  The  public  service  being  over,  he 
withdrew  for  a  space  to  his  pre-mentioned  oratory  for 
his  sacred  addresses  to  God,  as  in  the  forenoon,  then 
came  down,  repeated  the  sermon  in  the  family,  prayed, 
after  supper  sang  a  Psalm,  and  towards  bedtime  be- 
taking himself  again  to  his  study  he  closed  the  day 
with  prayer.  Thus  he  spent  the  Sabbath  continually." 
Just  fancy  the  Cotton  children  and  servants  listening 
to  his  long  afternoon  sermon  a  second  time ! 

All  the  New  England  clergymen  were  rigid  in  the 
prolonged  observance  of  Sunday.  From  sunset  on 
Saturday  until  Sunday  night  they  would  not  shave, 
have  rooms  swept,  nor  beds  made,  have  food  prepared, 
nor  cooking  utensils  and  table-ware  washed.  As  soon 
as  their  Sabbath  began  they  gathered  their  families 
and  servants  around  them,  as  did  Cotton,  and  read  the 
Bible  and  exhorted  and  prayed  and  recited  the  cate- 
chism until  nine  o'clock,  usually  by  the  light  of  one 
small  "  dip  candle  "  only  ;  on  long  winter  Saturdays 
it  must  have  been  gloomy  and  tedious  indeed.  Small 
wonder  that  one  minister  wrote  back  to  England  that 


THE  OBSERVANCE  OF  THE  DAY.  255 

he  found  it  difficult  in  the  new  colony  to  get  a  servant 
who  "  enjoyed  catechizing  and  family  duties"  Many 
clergymen  deplored  sadly  the  custom  which  grew  in 
later  years  of  driving,  and  even  transacting  business, 
on  Saturday  night.  Mr.  Bushnell  used  to  call  it 
"stealing  the  time  of  the  Sabbath,"  and  refused  to 
countenance  it  in  any  way. 

It  was  very  generally  believed  in  the  early  days  of 
New  England  that  special  judgments  befell  those  who 
worked  on  the  eve  of  the  Sabbath.  Winthrop  gives 
the  case  of  a  man  who,  having  hired  help  to  repair  a 
millflam,  worked  an  hour  on  Saturday  after  sunset  to 
finish  what  he  had  intended  for  the  day's  labor.  The 
next  day  his  little  child,  being  left  alone  for  some 
hours,  was  drowned  in  an  uncovered  well  in  the  cellar 
of  his  house.  "  The  father  freely,  in  open  congrega- 
tion, did  acknowledge  it  the  righteous  hand  of  God 
for  his  profaning  his  holy  day." 

Visitors  and  travellers  from  other  countries  were 
forced  to  obey  the  rigid  laws  with  regard  to  Saturday- 
night  observance.  Archibald  Henderson,  the  master 
of  a  vessel  which  entered  the  port  of  Boston,  com- 
plained to  the  Council  for  Foreign  Plantations  in 
London  that  while  he  was  in  sober  Boston  town, 
being  ignorant  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  having 
walked  half  an  hour  after  sunset  on  Saturday  night, 
as  punishment  for  this  unintentional  and  trivial 
offence,  a  constable  entered  his  lodgings,  seized  him 
by  the  hair  of  his  head,  and  dragged  him  to  prison. 
Henderson  claimed  £800  damages  for  the  detention 


256       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

of  his  vessel  during  his  prosecution.  T  have  always 
suspected  that  the  gay  captain  may  have  misbehaved 
himself  in  Boston  on  that  Saturday  night  in  some 
other  way  than  simply  by  walking  in  the  streets,  and 
that  the  Puritan  law-enforcers  took  advantage  of  the 
Sabbath-day  laws  in  order  to  prosecute  and  punish 
him.  We  know  of  Bradford's  complaint  of  the  times ; 
that  while  sailors  brought  "  a  greate  deale  "  of  money 
from  foreign  parts  to  New  England  to  spend,  they 
also  brought  evil  ways  of  spending  it  —  "  more  sine  I 
feare  than  money." 

The  Puritans  found  in  Scripture  support  for  this 
observance  of  Saturday  night,  in  these  words,  "  The 
evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first  day,"  and 
they  had  many  followers  in  their  belief.  In  New 
England  country  towns  to  this  day,  descendants  of 
the  Puritans  regard  Saturday  night,  though  in  a 
modified  way,  as  almost  Sunday,  and  that  evening  is 
never  chosen  for  any  kind  of  gay  gathering  or  visit- 
ing.  As  late  as  1855  the  shops  in  Hartford  were 
never  open  for  customers  upon  Saturday  night. 

Much  satire  was  directed  against  this  Saturday 
night  observance  both  by  English  and  by  American 
authors.  In  the  "  American  Museum  "  for  February, 
1787,  appeared  a  poem  entitled,  "The  Connecticut 
Sabbath."  After  saying  at  some  length  that  God 
had  thought  one  day  in  seven  sufficient  for  rest,  but 
New  England  Christians  had  improved  his  law  by 
setting  apart  a  day  and  a  half,  the  poet  thus  runs  on 
derisively :  — 


THE  OBSERVANCE  OF  THE  DAY.  257 

"  And  let  it  be  enacted  further  still 
That  all  our  people  strict  observe  our  will ; 
Five  days  and  a  half  shall  men,  and  women,  too, 
Attend  their  bus'ness  and  their  mirth  pursue, 
But  after  that  no  man  without  a  fine 
Shall  walk  the  streets  or  at  a  tavern  dine. 
One  day  and  half  't  is  requisite  to  rest 
From  toilsome  labor  and  a  tempting  feast. 
Henceforth  let  none  on  peril  of  their  lives 
Attempt  a  journey  or  embrace  their  wives  ; 
No  barber,  foreign  or  domestic  bred, 
Shall  e'er  presume  to  dress  a  lady's  head ; 
No  shop  shall  spare  (half  the  preceding  day) 
A  yard  of  riband  or  an  ounce  of  tea. " 

And  many  similar  rhymes  might  be  given. 

Sunday  night,  being  shut  out  of  the  Sabbath  hours, 
became  in  the  eighteenth  century  a  time  of  general 
cheerfulness  and  often  merry-making.  This  sudden 
transition  from  the  religious  calm  and  quiet  of  the 
afternoon  to  the  noisy  gayety  of  the  evening  was  very 
trying  to  many  of  the  clergymen,  especially  to  Jona- 
than Edwards,  who  preached  often  and  sadly  against 
"  Sabbath  evening  dissipations  and  mirth-making." 
In  some  communities  singing-schools  were  held  on 
Sunday  nights,  which  afforded  a  comparatively  deco- 
rous and  orderly  manner  of  spending  the  close  of 
the  day. 

Sweet  to  the  Pilgrims  and  to  their  descendants  was 
the  hush  of  their  calm  Saturday  night,  and  their  still, 
tranquil  Sabbath,  —  sign  and  token  to  them,  not  only 
of  the  weekly  rest  ordained  in  the  creation,  but  of  the 
eternal  rest  to  come.  The  universal  quiet  and  peace 


258       THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

of  the  community  showed  the  primitive  instinct  of 
a  pure,  simple  devotion,  the  sincere  religion  which 
knew  no  compromise  in  spiritual  things,  no  half-way 
obedience  to  God's  Word,  but  rested  absolutely  on  the 
Lord's  Day —  as  was  commanded.  No  work,  no  play, 
no  idle  strolling  was  known ;  no  sign  of  human  life 
or  motion  was  seen  except  the  necessary  care  of  the 
patient  cattle  and  other  dumb  beasts,  the  orderly  and 
quiet  going  to  and  from  the  meeting,  and  at  the 
nooning,  a  visit  to  the  churchyard  to  stand  by  the 
side  of  the  silent  dead.  This  absolute  obedience  to 
the  letter  as  well  as  to  the  spirit  of  God's  Word  was 
one  of  the  most  typical  traits  of  the  character  of  the 
Puritans,  and  appeared  to  them  to  be  one  of  the  most 
vital  points  of  their  religion. 


xvm. 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE 
MINISTERS. 

SEVERELY  were  the  early  colonists  punished  if  they 
ventured  to  criticise  or  disparage  either  the  ministers 
or  their  teachings,  or  indeed  any  of  the  religious 
exercises  of  the  church.  In  Sandwich  a  man  was 
publicly  whipped  for  speaking  deridingly  of  God's 
words  and  ordinances  as  taught  by  the  Sandwich 
minister.  Mistress  Oliver  was  forced  to  stand  in 
public  with  a  cleft  stick  on  her  tongue  for  "  reproach- 
ing the  elders."  A  New  Haven  man  was  severely 
whipped  and  fined  for  declaring  that  he  received  no 
profit  from  the  minister's  sermons.  We  also  know 
the  terrible  shock  given  the  Windharn  church  in  1729 
by  the  "  vile  and  slanderous  expressions  "  of  one  un- 
regenerate  Windhamite  who  said, "  I  had  rather  hear 
my  dog  bark  than  Mr.  Bellamy  preach."  He  was 
warned  that  he  would  be  "  shakenoff  and  givenup," 
and  terrified  at  the  prospect  of  so  dire  a  fate  he  read 
a  confession  of  his  sorrow  and  repentance,  and  prom- 
ised to  "  keep  a  guard  over  his  tongue,"  and  also  to 
listen  to  Mr.  Bellamy's  preaching,  which  may  have 
been  a  still  more  difficult  task.  Mr.  Edward  Tomlins, 


260        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

of  Boston,  upon  retracting  his  opinion  which  he  had 
expressed  openly  against  the  singing  in  the  churches, 
was  discharged  without  a  fine.  William  Howes  and 
his  son  were  in  1744  fined  fifty  shillings  "  apeece  for 
deriding  such  as  sing  in  the  congregation,  tearming 
them  fooles."  The  church  music  was  as  sacred  to 
the  Puritans  as  were  the  prayers,  but  it  must  have 
been  a  sore  trial  to  many  to  keep  still  about  the  vile 
manner  and  method  of  singing.  In  1631  Phillip 
Ratcliffe,  for  "  speaking  against  the  churches,"  had  his 
ears  cut  off,  was  whipped  and  banished.  We  know 
also  the  consternation  caused  in  New  Haven  in  1646 
by  Madam  Brevvster's  saying  that  the  custom  of  car- 
rying contributions  to  the  Deacons'  table  was  popish 
—  was  "  like  going  to  the  High  Alter,"  and  "  savored 
of  the  Mass."  She  answered  her  accusers  in  such  a 
bald,  highhanded,  and  defiant  manner  that  her  heinous 
offence  was  considered  worthy  of  trial  in  a  higher 
court,  whose  decision  is  now  lost. 

The  colonists  could  not  let  their  affection  and  zeal 
for  an  individual  minister  cause  them  to  show  any 
disrespect  or  indifference  to  the  Puritan  Church  in 
general.  When  the  question  of  the  settlement  of  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Lenthal  in  the  church  of  We/month, 
Massachusetts,  was  under  discussion,  the  tyranny  pf 
the  Puritan  Church  over  any  who  dared  oppose  or 
question  it  was  shown  in  a  marked  manner,  and  may 
be  cited  as  a  typical  case.  Mr.  Lenthal  was  suspected 
of  being  poisoned  with  the  Anne  Hutchinson  heresies, 
and  he  also  "  opposed  the  way  of  gathering  churches." 


AUTHORITY  OF  CHURCH  AND  OF  MINISTERS.        261 

Hence  his  ordination  over  the  church  in  the  new  set- 
tlement was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  Boston  divines, 
though  apparently  desired  by  the  Weymouth  congre- 
gation. One  Britton,  who  was  friendly  towards  Len- 
thal  and  who  spoke  "  reproachfully  "  and  slurringly 
of  a  book  which  defended  the  course  of  the  Boston 
churches,  was  whipped  with  eleven  stripes,  as  he  had 
no  money  to  pay  the  imposed  fine.  John  Smythe, 
who  "  got  hands  to  a  blank  "  (which  was  either  can- 
vassing for  signatures  to  a  proxy  vote  in  favor  of 
Lenthal  or  obtaining  signatures  to  an  instrument 
declaring  against  the  design  of  the  churches),  for 
thus  "  combining  to  hinder  the  orderly  gathering " 
of  the  Weymouth  church  at  this  time,  was  fined  £2. 
Edward  Sylvester  for  the  same  offence  was  fined 
and  disfranchised.  Ambrose  Martin,  another  friend 
of  Lenthal's,  for  calling  the  church  covenant  of  the 
Boston  divines  "  a  stinking  carrion  and  a  human 
invention,"  was  fined  <£10,  while  Thomas  Makepeace, 
another  Weymouth  malcontent,  was  informed  by 
those  in  power  that  "they  were  weary  of  him,"  or, 
in  modern  slang,  that  "  he  made  them  tired."  Par- 
son Lenthal  himself,  being  sent  for  by  the  conven- 
tion, weakened  at  once  in  a  way  his  church  followers 
must  have  bitterly  despised ;  he  was  "  quickly  con- 
vinced of  his  error  and  evil."  His  conviction  was 
followed  with  his  confession,  and  in  open  court  he 
gave  under  his  hand  a  laudable  retraction,  which  re- 
traction he  was  ordered  also  to  "  utter  in  the  assembly 
at  Weymouth,  and  so  no  further  censure  was  passed 


262       THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

on  him."  Thus  the  chief  offender  got  the  lightest 
punishment,  and  thus  did  the  omnipotent  Church  rule 
the  whole  community. 

The  names  of  loquacious,  babbling  Quakers  and 
Baptists  who  spoke  disrespectfully  of  some  or  all  of 
the  ordinances  of  the  Puritan  church  might  be  given, 
and  would  swell  the  list  indefinitely ;  they  were  fined 
and  punished  without  mercy  or  even  toleration. 

All  profanity  or  blaspheming  against  God  was 
severely  punished.  One  very  wicked  man  in  Hart- 
ford for  his  "  fillthy  and  prophane  expressions,"  namely, 
that  "  hee  hoped  to  meet  some  of  the  members  of  the 
Church  in  Hell  before  long,  and  he  did  not  question 
but  hee  should,"  was  "committed  to  prison,  there  to 
be  kept  in  safe  custody  till  the  sermon,  and  then  to 
stand  the  time  thereof  in  the  pillory,  and  after  sermon 
to  be  severely  whipped."  What  a  severe  punishment 
for  so  purely  verbal  an  offence  !  New  England  ideas 
of  profanity  were  very  rigid,  and  New  England  men 
had  reason  to  guard  well  their  temper  and  tongue, 
else  that  latter  member  might  be  bored  with  a  hot 
iron ;  for  such  was  the  penalty  for  profanity.  We 
know  what  horror  Mr.  Tomlins's  wicked  profanity, 
"  Curse  ye  woodchuck ! "  caused  in  Lynn  meeting,  and 
Mr.  Dexter  was  "  putt  in  ye  billboes  ffor  prophane 
saying  dam  ye  cowe."  The  Newbury  doctor  was 
sharply  fined  also  for  wickedly  cursing.  When  drink- 
ing at  the  tavern  he  raised  his  glass  and  said,  — 

**  I  '11  pledge  my  friends,  and  for  my  foes 
A  plague  for  their  heels,  and  a  poxe  for  their  toes." 


AUTHORITY  OF  CHURCH  AND  OF  MINISTERS.        263 

He  acknowledged  his  wickedness  and  foolishness  in 
using  the  "  olde  proverb,"  and  penitently  promised  to 
curse  no  more. 

Sad  to  tell,  Puritan  women  sometimes  lost  their 
temper  and  their  good-breeding  and  their  godliness. 
Two  wicked  Wells  women  were  punished  in  1669 
"  for  using  profane  speeches  in  their  common  talk ; 
as  in  making  answer  to  several  questions  their  an- 
swer is,  The  Devil  a  bit."  In  1640,  in  Springfield, 
Goody  Gregory,  being  grievously  angered,  profanely 
abused  an  annoying  neighbor,  saying,  "  Before  God 
I  coulde  breake  thy  heade ! "  But  she  acknowledged 
her  "  great  sine  and  faulte  "  like  a  woman,  and  paid 
her  fine  and  sat  in  the  stocks  like  a  man,  since  she 
swore  like  the  members  of  that  profane  sex. 

Sometimes  the  sins  of  the  fathers  were  visited  on 
the  children  in  a  most  extraordinary  manner.  One 
man,  "  for  abusing  N.  Parker  at  the  tavern,"  was 
deprived  of  the  privilege  of  bringing  his  children  to 
be  baptized,  and  was  thus  spiritually  punished  for  a 
very  worldly  offence.  For  some  offences,  such  as 
"speaking  deridingly  of  the  minister's  powers,"  as 
was  done  in  Plymouth,  "  casting  uncharitable  reflex- 
ions on  the  minister,"  as  did  an  Aridover  man ;  and 
also  for  absenting  one's  self  from  church  services ;  for 
"  sloathefulness,"  for  "  walking  prophanely,"  for  spoil- 
ing hides  when  tanning  and  refusing  explanation 
thereof ;  for  selling  short  weight  in  grain,  for  being 
"  given  too  much  to  Jearings,"  for  "  Slanndering," 
for  being  a  "  Makebayte,"  for  "  ronging  naibors," 


264        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

for  "being  too  Proude,"  for  "  suspitions  of  stealing 
pinnes,"  for  "  pnishouse  Squerilouse  Odyouse  wordes," 
and  for  "  lyeing,"  church-members  were  not  only  fined 
and  punished  but  were  deprived  of  partaking  of  the 
sacrament.  In  the  matter  of  lying  great  distinction 
was  made  as  to  the  character  and  effect  of  the  offence. 
George  Crispe's  wife,  who  "  told  a  lie,  not  a  perni- 
cious lie,  but  unadvisedly,"  was  simply  admonished 
and  remonstrated  with.  Will  Randall,  who  told  a 
"  plain  lie,"  was  fined  ten  shillings.  While  Ralph 
Smith,  who  "lied  about  seeing  a  whale,"  was  fined 
twenty  shillings  and  excommunicated. 

In  some  communities,  of  which  Lechford  tells  us 
New  Haven  was  one,  these  unhouselled  Puritans  were 
allowed,  if  they  so  desired,  to  stand  outside  the 
meeting-house  door  at  the  time  of  public  worship  and 
catch  what  few  words  of  the  service  they  could.  This 
humble  waiting  for  crumbs  of  God's  word  was  doubt- 
less regarded  as  a  sign  of  repentance  for  past  deeds, 
for  it  was  often  followed  by  full  forgiveness.  As 
excommunicated  persons  were  regarded  with  high 
disfavor  and  even  abhorrence  by  the  entire  pious  and 
godly  walking  community,  this  apparently  spiritual 
punishment  was  more  severe  in  its  temporal  effects 
than  at  first  sight  appears.  From  the  Cambridge 
Platform,  which  was  drawn  up  and  adopted  by  the 
New  England  Synod  in  1648,  we  learn  that  "  while 
the  offender  remains  excommunicated  the  church  is 
to  refrain  from  all  communion  with  him  in  civil 
things,"  and  the  members  were  specially  "  to  forbear 


AUTHORITY   OF  CHURCH  AND   OF   MINISTERS.        265 

to  eat  and  drink  with  him;"  so  his  daily  and  even 
his  family  life  was  made  wretched.  And  as  it  was 
not  necessary  to  wait  for  the  action  of  the  church  to 
pronounce  excommunication,  but  the  "  pastor  of  a 
church  might  by  himself  and  authoritatively  suspend 
from  the  Lord's  table  a  brother  suspected  of  scandal " 
until  there  was  time  for  full  examination,  we  can  see 
what  an  absolute  power  the  church  and  even  the  min- 
ister had  over  church-members  in  a  New  England 
community. 

Nor  could  the  poor  excommunicate  go  to  neigh- 
boring towns  and  settlements  to  start  afresh.  No 
one  wished  him  or  would  tolerate  him.  Lancaster, 
in  1653,  voted  not  to  receive  into  its  plantation  u  any 
excommunicat  or  notoriously  erring  agt  the  Docktrin 
&  Discipline  of  churches  of  this  Commonwealth." 
Other  towns  passed  similar  votes.  Fortunately,  Ehode 
Island  —  the  island  of  "  Aquidnay  "  and  the  Provi- 
dence Plantations  —  opened  wide  its  arms  as  a  place 
of  refuge  for  outcast  Puritans.  Universal  freedom 
and  religious  toleration  were  in  Rhode  Island  the 
foundations  of  the  State.  Josiah  Quincy  said  that 
liberty  of  conscience  would  have  produced  anarchy  if 
it  had  been  permitted  in  the  New  England  Puritan 
settlements  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  the  flour- 
ishing Narragansett,  Providence,  and  Newport  planta- 
tions seem  to  prove  the  absurdity  of  that  statement. 
Liberty  of  conscience  was  there  allowed,  as  Dr.  Mac- 
Sparran,  the  first  clergyman  of  the  Narragansett 
Church,  complained  in  his  "  America  Dissected,"  "  to 


266        THE   SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

the  extent  of  no  religion  at  all."  The  Gortonians, 
the  Foxians,  and  Hutchinsonians,  the  Anabaptists,  the 
Six  Principle  Baptists,  the  Church  of  England,  ap- 
parently all  the  followers  of  the  eighty-two  "pesti- 
lent heresies"  so  sadly  enumerated  and  so  bitterly 
hated  and  "  cast  out  to  Satan  "  by  the  Massachusetts 
Puritan  divines,  —  all  the  excommmiicants  and  exiles 
found  in  Rhode  Island  a  home  and  friends — other 
friends  than  the  Devil  to  whom  they  had  been 
consigned. 

Though  the  early  Puritan  ministers  had  such  power- 
ful influence  in  every  other  respect,  they  were  not 
permitted  to  perform  the  marriage-service  nor  to 
raise  their  voices  in  prayer  or  exhortation  at  a 
funeral.  Sewall  jealously  notes  when  the  English 
burial-service  began  to  be  read  at  burials,  saying,  "  the 
office  for  Burial  is  a  Lying  very  bad  office  makes  no 
difference  between  the  precious  and  the  vile."  The 
office  of  marriage  was  denied  the  parson,  and  was 
generally  relegated  to  the  magistrate.  In  this,  Gov- 
ernor Bradford  states,  they  followed  "ye  laudable 
custome  of  ye  Low  Countries."  Not  rulers  and  magis- 
trates only  were  empowered  to  perform  the  marriage 
ceremony ;  squires,  tavern-keepers,  captains,  various 
authorized  persons  might  wed  Puritan  lovers ;  any 
man  of  dignity  or  prominence  in  the  community  could 
apparently  receive  authority  to  perform  that  office  ex- 
cept the  otherwise  all-powerful  parson. 

As  years  rolled  on,  though  the  New  Englanders  still 
felt  great  reverence  and  pride  for  their  church  and  its 


AUTHOKITY  OF  CHURCH  AND  OF  MINISTERS.       267 

ordinances,  the  minister  was  no  longer  the  just  man 
made  perfect,  the  oracle  of  divine  will.  The  church- 
members  escaped  somewhat  from  ecclesiastical  power, 
and  some  of  them  found  fault  with  and  openly  dispar- 
aged their  ministers  in  a  way  that  would  in  early  days 
have  caused  them  to  be  pilloried,  whipped,  caged,  or 
fined ;  and  often  the  derogatory  comments  were  elic- 
ited by  the  most  trivial  offences.  One  parson  was  bit- 
terly condemned  because  he  managed  to  amass  eight 
hundred  dollars  by  selling  the  produce  of  his  farm. 
Another  shocking  and  severely  criticised  offence  was  a 
game  of  bowls  which  one  minister  played  and  enjoyed. 
Still  another  minister,  in  Hanover,  Massachusetts,  was 
reproved  for  his  lack  of  dignity,  which  was  shown  in 
his  wearing  stockings  "  footed  up  with  another  color ; " 
that  is,  knit  stockings  in  which  the  feet  were  colored 
differently  from  the  legs.  He  also  was  found  guilty 
of  having  jumped  over  the  fence  instead  of  decorously 
and  clerically  walking  through  the  gate  when  going 
to  call  on  one  of  his  parishioners.  Rev.  Joseph 
Metcalf  of  the  Old  Colony  was  complained  of  in  1720 
for  wearing  too  worldly  a  wig.  He  mildly  reproved 
and  shamed  the  meddlesome  women  of  his  church  by 
asking  them  to  come  to  him  and  each  cut  off  a  lock  of 
hair  from  the  obnoxious  wig  until  all  the  complainers 
were  satisfied  that  it  had  been  rendered  sufficiently 
unworldly.  Some  Newbury  church-members,  in  1742, 
asserted  that  their  minister  unclerically  wore  a  colored 
kerchief  instead  of  a  band.  This  he  indignantly  de- 
nied, saying  that  he  "  had  never  buried  a  babe  even  *n 


268    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

most  tempestuous  weather,"  when  he  rode  several 
miles,  but  he  always  wore  a  band,  and  he  complained 
in  turn  that  members  of  his  congregation  turned  away 
from  him  on  the  street,  and  "glowered"  at  him  and 
"sneered  at  him."  Still  more  unseemly  demonstra- 
tions of  dislike  were  sometimes  shown,  as  in  South 
Hadley,  in  1741,  when  a  committee  of  disaffected  par- 
ishioners pulled  the  Rev.  Mr.  Rawsom  out  of  the  pulpit 
and  marched  him  out  of  the  meeting-house  because 
they  did  not  fancy  his  preaching.  But  all  such  actions 
were  as  offensive  to  the  general  community  then  as 
open  expressions  of  dissatisfaction  and  contempt  are 
now. 


XIX. 

THE   ORDINATION  OF  THE   MINISTER. 

THE  minister's  ordination  was,  of  course,  an  impor- 
tant social  as  well  as  spiritual  event  in  such  a  relig- 
ious community  as  was  a  New  England  colonial  town. 
It  was  always  celebrated  by  a  great  gathering  of  peo- 
ple from  far  and  near,  including  all  the  ministers 
from  every  town  for  many  miles  around ;  and  though 
a  deeply  serious  service,  was  also  an  excuse  for  much 
merriment.  In  Connecticut,  and  by  tradition  also  in 
Massachusetts,  an  "  ordination-ball "  was  frequently 
given.  It  is  popularly  supposed  that  at  this  ball  the 
ministers  did  not  dance,  nor  even  appear,  nor  to  it  in 
any  way  give  their  countenance ;  that  it  was  only  a 
ball  given  at  the  time  of  the  ordination  because  so 
many  people  would  then  be  in  the  town  to  take  part 
in  the  festivity.  That  this  was  not  always  the  case  is 
proved  by  a  letter  of  invitation  still  in  existence  writ- 
ten by  Reverend  Timothy  Edwards,  who  was  ordained 
in  Windsor  in  1694 ;  it  was  written  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Stoughton,  asking  them  to  attend  the  ordination-ball 
which  was  to  be  given  in  his,  the  minister's  house. 
But  whether  the  parsons  approved  and  attended,  or 
whether  they  strongly  discountenanced  it,  the  ordina- 


270    THE  SABBATH  IN  PUKITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

tion-ball  was  always  a  great  success.  It  is  recorded 
that  at  one  in  Danvers  a  young  man  danced  so  vigo- 
rously and  long  on  the  sanded  floor  that  he  entirely 
wore  out  a  new  pair  of  shoes.  The  fashion  of  giving 
ordination-balls  did  not  die  out  with  colonial  times. 
In  Federal  days  it  still  continued,  a  specially  gay  ball 
being  given  in  the  town  of  Wolcott  at  an  ordination 
in  1811. 

There  was  always  given  an  ordination  supper,  —  a 
plentiful  feast,  at  which  visiting  ministers  and  the 
new  pastor  were  always  present  and  partook  with  true 
clerical  appetite.  This  ordination  feast  consisted  of 
all  kinds  of  New  England  fare,  all  the  mysterious 
compounds  and  concoctions  of  Indian  corn  and  "  pom- 
pions,"  all  sorts  of  roast  meats,  "turces"  cooked 
in  various  ways,  gingerbread  and  "  cacks,"  and  — 
an  inevitable  feature  at  the  time  of  every  gather- 
ing of  people,  from  a  corn-husking  or  apple-bee  to  a 
funeral  —  a  liberal  amount  of  cider,  punch,  and  grog 
was  also  supplied,  which  latter  compound  beverages 
were  often  mixed  on  the  meeting-house  green  or  even 
in  punch-bowls  on  the  very  door-steps  of  the  church. 
Beer,  too,  was  specially  brewed  to  honor  the  feast. 
Rev.  Mr.  Thatcher,  of  Boston,  wrote  in  his  diary  on 
the  twentieth  of  May,  1681,  "  This  daye  the  Ordina- 
tion Bcare  was  brewed."  Portable  bars  were  some- 
times established  at  the  church-door,  and  strong 
drinks  were  distributed  free  of  charge  to  the  entire 
assemblage.  As  late  as  1825,  at  the  installation  of 
Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  over  the  First  Congregational 


THE  ORDINATION  OF  THE  MINISTER. 

Church  in  New  Haven,  free  drinks  were  furnished  at 
an  adjacent  bar  to  all  who  chose  to  order  them,  and 
were  "  settled  for "  by  the  generous  and  hospitable 
society.  In  considering  the  extravagant  amount  of 
moneys  often  recorded  as  having  been  paid  out  for 
liquor  at  ordinations,  one  must  not  fail  to  remember 
that  the  seemingly  large  sums  were  often  spent  in 
Revolutionary  times  during  the  great  depreciation  of 
Continental  money.  Six  hundred  and  sixty-six  dollars 
were  disbursed  for  the  entertainment  of  the  council 
at  the  ordination  of  Mr.  Kilbourn,  of  Chesterfield  ;  but 
the  items  were  really  few  and  the  total  amount  of 
liquor  was  not  great,  —  thirty-eight  mugs  of  flip  at 
twelve  dollars  per  mug;  eleven  gills  of  rum  bitters  at 
six  dollars  per  gill,  and  two  mugs  of  sling  at  twenty- 
four  dollars  per  mug.  The  church  in  one  town  sent 
the  Continental  money  in  payment  for  the  drinks  of 
the  church-council  in  a  wheelbarrow  to  the  tavern- 
keeper,  and  he  was  not  very  well  paid  either. 

It  gives  one  a  strange  sense  of  the  customs  and 
habits  of  the  olden  times  to  read  an  "  ordination-bill " 
from  a  tavern-keeper  which  is  thus  endorsed,  "  This 
all  Paid  for  exsept  the  Minister's  Rum."  To  give 
some  idea  of  the  expense  of  "  keeping  the  ministers  " 
at  an  ordination  in  Hartford  in  1784,  let  me  give  the 
items  of  the  bill :  — 

£    s.   d. 

To  keeping  Ministers 024 

2  Mugs  tody 0    5  10 

5  Segars 030 

1  Pint  wine  009 


272        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

£     s.    d. 

3  lodgings 090 

3  bitters 009 

3  breakfasts 036 

15  boles  Punch 1  10    0 

24  dinners 1  16    0 

11  bottles  wine 036 

5  mugs  flip 0    5  10 

3  boles  punch 060 

3  boles  tody 036 

One  might  say  with  Falstaff,  "  0  monstrous !  but 
one  half-pennyworth  of  bread  to  this  intolerable  deal 
of  sack ! "  I  sadly  fear  me  that  at  that  Hartford  ordi- 
nation our  parson  ancestors  got  grievously  "  gilded," 
to  use  a  choice  "  red-lattice  phrase." 

Many  accounts  of  gay  ordination  parties  have  been 
preserved  in  diaries  for  us.  Reverend  Mr.  Smith, 
who  was  settled  in  Portland  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  wrote  thus  in  his  journal  of  an 
ordination  which  he  attended :  "  Mr.  Foxcroft  ordained 
at  New  Gloucester.  We  had  a  pleasant  journey  home. 
Mr.  L.  was  alert  and  kept  us  all  merry.  A  jolly 
ordination.  We  lost  all  sight  of  decorum."  The  Mr. 
L.  referred  to  was  Mr.  Stephen  Longfellow,  great- 
grandfather of  the  poet. 

Bills  for  ordination-expenses  abound  in  items  of 
barrels  of  rum  and  cider  and  metheglin,  of  bowls  of 
flip  and  punch  and  toddy,  of  boxes  of  lemons  and  loaves 
of  sugar,  in  punches,  and  sometimes  broken  punch- 
bowls, and  in  one  case  a  large  amount  of  Malaga  and 
Canary  wine,  spices  and  "  ross  water,"  from  which 


THE  ORDINATION  OF  THE  MINISTER.  273 

was  brewed  doubtless  an  appetizing  ordination-cup 
which  may  have  rivalled  Josselyn's  New  England 
nectar  of  "  cyder,  Maligo  raisins,  spices,  and  sirup  of 
clove-gillyflowers." 

In  Massachusetts,  in  January,  1759,  the  subject  of 
the  frequent  disorders  and  irregularities  in  connection 
with  ordination-services,  especially  in  country  towns, 
came  before  the  council  of  the  province,  who  referred 
its  consideration  to  a  convention  of  ministers.  The 
ministers  at  that  convention  were  recommended  to 
each  give  instruction,  exhortation,  and  advice  against 
excesses  to  the  members  of  his  congregation  whenever 
an  ordination  was  about  to  take  place  in  the  vicinity 
of  his  church.  In  this  way  it  was  hoped  that  the  re- 
formation would  be  aided,  and  temperance,  order,  and 
decorum  established.  The  newspapers  were  free  in 
their  condemnation  of  the  feasting  and  roistering 
at  ordination-services.  When  Dr.  Cummings  was 
ordained  over  the  Old  South  Church  of  Boston  in 
February,  1761,  a  feast  took  place  at  the  Rev.  Dr.. 
Sewall's  house  which  occasioned  much  comment. 
A  four-column  letter  of  criticism  appeared  in  the 
Boston  Gazette  of  March  9, 1761,  over  the  signature 
of  "Countryman,"  which  provoked  several  answers 
and  much  newspaper  controversy.  As  Dr.  Sewall  had 
been  moderator  of  the  meeting  of  ministers  held  only 
two  years  previously  with  the  hope,  and  for  the  pur- 
pose of  abolishing  ordination  revelries,  it  is  not  strange 
that  the  circumstance  of  the  feast  being  given  in  his 
house  should  cause  public  comment  and  criticism. 

18 


274       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN    NEW  ENGLAND. 

"  Countryman  "  complained  that  "  the  price  of  pro- 
visions was  raised  a  quarter  part  in  Boston  for  several 
days  before  the  instalment  by  reason  of  the  great 
preparations  therefor,  and  the  readiness  of  the  eccle- 
siastical caterers  to  give  almost  any  price  that  was 
demanded.  Many  Boston  people  complained  the 
town  had,  by  this  means,  in  a  few  days  lost  a  large 
sum  of  money ;  which  was,  as  it  were,  levied  on  and 
extorted  from  them.  If  the  poor  were  the  better  for 
what  remained  of  so  plentiful  and  splendid  a  feast 
I  am  very  glad  but  yet  think  it  is  a  pity  the  charity 
were  not  better  timed."  He  reprovingly  enumerates, 
"There  were  six  tables  that  held  one  with  another 
eighteen  persons  each,  upon  each  table  a  good  rich 
plumb  pudding,  a  dish  of  boil'd  pork  and  fowls,  and 
a  corn'd  leg  of  pork  with  sauce  proper  for  it,  a  leg  of 
bacon,  a  piece  of  alamode  beef,  a  leg  of  mutton  with 
caper  sauce,  a  roast  line  of  veal,  a  roast  turkey,  a 
venison  pastee,  besides  chess  cakes  and  tarts,  cheese 
and  butter.  Half  a  dozen  cooks  were  employed  upon 
this  occasion,  upwards  of  twenty  tenders  to  wait  upon 
the  tables ;  they  had  the  best  of  old  cyder,  one  barrel 
of  Lisbon  wine,  punch  in  plenty  before  and  after 
dinner,  made  of  old  Barbados  spirit.  The  cost  of 
this  moderate  dinner  was  upwards  of  fifty  pounds 
lawful  money."  This  special  ordination-feast,  even  as 
detailed  by  the  complaining  "  Countryman,"  does  not 
seem  to  me  very  reprehensible.  The  standing  of  the 
church,  the  wealth  of  the  congregation,  the  character 
of  the  guests  (among  whom  were  the  Governor  and 


THE  ORDINATION  OF  THE  MINISTER.  275 

the  judges  of  the  Superior  Court)  all  make  this  repast 
appear  neither  ostentatious  nor  extravagant.  Fifty 
pounds  was  certainly  not  an  enormous  sum  to  spend 
for  a  dinner  with  wine  for  over  one  hundred  persons, 
and  such  a  good  dinner  too.  Nor  is  it  probable  that 
a  city  as  large  as  was  Boston  at  that  date  could 
through  that  dinner  have  been  swept  of  provisions  to 
such  an  extent  that  prices  would  be  raised  a  quarter 
part.  I  suspect  some  personal  malice  caused  "  Coun- 
tryman's "  attacks,  for  he  certainly  could  have  found 
in  other  towns  more  flagrant  cases  to  complain  of  and 
condemn. 

Though  no  record  exists  to  prove  that  "  the  poor 
were  the  better  for  what  remained  "  after  this  Boston 
feast,  in  other  towns  letters  and  church-entries  show 
that  any  fragments  remaining  after  the  ordination- 
dinner  were  well  disposed  of.  Sometimes  they  fur- 
nished forth  the  new  minister's  table.  In  one  case 
they  were  given  to  "  a  widowed  family  "  (  "widowed  " 
here  being  used  in  the  old  tender  sense  of  bereaved) . 
In  Killingly  "  the  overplush  of  provisions  "  was  sold 
to  help  pay  the  arrearages  of  the  salary  of  the  out- 
going minister,  thus  showing  a  laudable  desire  to 
"  settle  up  and  start  square." 

If  the  church  were  dedicated  at  the  time  of  the  or- 
dination, that  would  naturally  be  cause  for  additional 
gayety.  A  very  interesting  and  graphic  account  of 
the  feast  at  the  dedication  of  the  Old  Tunnel  Meeting- 
House  of  Lynn  in  the  year  1682  has  been  preserved. 
It  thus  describes  the  scene:  — 


276        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

"  Ye  Deddication  Dinner  was  had  in  ye  greate  barne 
of  Mr.  Hoode  which  by  reason  of  its  goodly  size  was 
deemed  ye  most  fit  place.  It  was  neatly  adorned  with 
green  bows  and  other  hangings  and  made  very  faire  to 
look  upon,  ye  wreaths  being  mostly  wrought  by  ye  young 
folk,  they  meeting  together,  both  maides  and  young  men, 
and  having  a  merr}7  time  in  doing  ye  work.  Ye  rough 
stalls  and  unhewed  posts  being  gaily  begirt  and  all  ye 
corners  and  cubbies  being  clean  swept  and  well  aired,  it 
truly  did  appear  a  meet  banquetting  hall.  Ye  scaffolds 
too  from  which  ye  provinder  had  been  removed  were 
swept  cleane  as  broome  could  make  them.  Some  seats 
were  put  up  on  ye  scaffoldes  whereon  might  sitt  such  of 
ye  antient  women  as  would  see  &  ye  maides  and  children. 
Ye  greate  floor  was  all  held  for  ye  company  which  was  to 
partake  of  ye  feast  of  fat  things,  none  others  being  ad- 
mitted there  save  them  that  were  to  wait  upon  ye  same. 
Ye  kine  that  were  wont  to  be  there  were  forced  to  keep 
holiday  in  the  field." 

Then  follows  a  minute  account  of  how  the  fowls 
persisted  in  flying  in  and  roosting  over  the  table,  scat- 
tering feathers  and  hay  on  the  parsons  beneath. 

"  Mr.  Shepard's  face  did  turn  very  red  and  he  catched 
up  an  apple  and  hurled  it  at  ye  birds.  But  he  thereby 
made  a  bad  matter  worse  for  ye  fruit  being  well  aimed 
it  hit  ye  legs  of  a  fowl  and  brought  him  floundering  and 
flopping  down  on  ye  table,  scattering  gravy,  sauce  and 
divers  things  upon  our  garments  and  in  our  faces.  But 
this  did  not  well  please  some,  yet  with  most  it  was  a 
happening  that  made  great  merryment.  Dainty  meats 


THE  ORDINATION  OF  THE  MINISTER.  277 

were  on  ye  table  in  great  plenty,  bear-stake,  deer-meat, 
rabbit,  and  fowle,  both  wild  and  from  ye  barnyard.  Lus- 
cious puddings  we  likewise  had  in  abundance,  mostly 
apple  and  berry,  but  some  of  corn  meal  with  small  bits 
of  sewet  baked  therein ;  also  pyes  and  tarts.  We  had 
some  pleasant  fruits,  as  apples,  nuts  and  wild  grapes, 
and  to  crown  all,  we  had  plenty  of  good  cider  and  ye  in- 
spiring Barbadoes  drink.  Mr.  Shepard  and  most  of  ye 
ministers  were  grave  and  prudent  at  table,  discoursing 
much  upon  ye  great  points  of  ye  deddication  sermon  and 
in  silence  laboring  upon  ye  food  before  them.  But  I  will 
not  risque  to  say  on  which  they  dwelt  with  most  relish, 
ye  discourse  or  ye  dinner.  Most  of  ye  young  members  of 
ye  Council  would  fain  make  a  jolly  time  of  it.  Mr.  Ger- 
rish,  ye  Wenham  minister,  tho  prudent  in  his  meat  and 
drinks,  was  yet  in  right  merry  mood.  And  he  did  once 
grievously  scandalize  Mr.  Shepard,  who  on  suddenly  look- 
ing up  from  his  dish  did  spy  him,  as  he  thot,  winking  in 
an  unbecoming  way  to  one  of  ye  pretty  damsels  on  ye 
scaffold.  And  thereupon  bidding  ye  godly  Mr.  Rogers  to 
labor  with  him  aside  for  his  misbehavior,  it  turned  out 
that  ye  winking  was  occasioned  by  some  of  ye  hay  seeds 
that  were  blowing  about,  lodging  in  his  eye ;  whereat 
Mr.  Shepard  felt  greatly  releaved. 

u  Ye  new  Meeting  house  was  much  discoursed  upon  at  ye 
table.  And  most  thot  it  as  comely  a  house  of  worship  as 
can  be  found  in  the  whole  Collony  save  only  three  or  four. 
Mr.  Gerrish  was  in  such  merry  mood  that  he  kept  ye  end 
of  ye  table  whereby  he  sat  in  right  jovial  humour.  Some 
did  loudly  laugh  and  clap  their  hands.  But  in  ye  middest 
of  ye  merryment  a  strange  disaster  did  happen  unto  him 
Not  having  his  thots  about  him  he  endeavored  ye  danger- 


278        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

ous  performance  of  gaping  and  laughing  at  the  same  time 
which  he  must  now  feel  is  not  so  easy  or  safe  a  thing.  In 
doing  this  he  set  his  jaws  open  in  such  wise  that  it  was 
beyond  all  his  power  to  bring  them  together  again.  His 
agonie  was  very  great,  and  his  joyful  laugh  soon  turned 
to  grievous  groaning.  Ye  women  in  ye  scaffolds  became 
much  distressed  for  him.  We  did  our  utmost  to  stay  ye 
anguish  of  Mr.  Gerrish,  but  could  make  out  little  till 
Mr.  Rogers  who  knoweth  somewhat  of  anatomy  did  bid 
ye  sufferer  to  sit  down  on  ye  floor,  which  being  done 
Mr.  Rogers  took  ye  head  atween  his  legs,  turning  ye  face 
as  much  upward  as  possible  and  then  gave  a  powerful 
blow  and  then  sudden  press  which  brot  ye  jaws  into 
working  order.  But  Mr.  Gerrish  did  not  gape  or  laugh 
much  more  on  that  occasion,  neither  did  he  talk  much  for 
that  matter. 

11  No  other  weighty  mishap  occurred  save  that  one  of 
ye  Salem  delegates,  in  boastfully  essaying  to  crack  a 
walnut  atween  his  teeth  did  crack,  instead  of  ye  nut,  a 
most  usefull  double  tooth  and  was  thereby  forced  to  ap- 
pear at  ye  evening  with  a  bandaged  face." 

This  ended  this  most  amusing  chapter  of  disasters 
to  the  ministers,  though  the  banquet  was  diversified 
by  interrupting  crows  from  invading  roosters,  fierce 
and  undignified  counter-attacks  with  nuts  and  apples 
by  the  clergymen,  a  few  mortifyingly  "  mawdlin  songs 
and  much  roistering  laughter,"  and  the  account  ends, 
"  so  noble  and  savoury  a  banquet  was  never  before 
spread  in  this  noble  town,  God  be  praised."  What  a 
picture  of  the  good  old  times  !  Different  times  make 
different  manners;  the  early  Puritan  ministers  did 


^   \ 

THE  ORDINATION  OF  THE  MINISTER.  279 

not,  as  a  rule,  drink  to  excess,  any  more  than  do  our 
modern  clergymen ;  but  it  is  not  strange  that  though 
they  were  of  Puritan  blood  and  belief,  they  should  have 
fallen  into  the  universal  custom  of  the  day,  and  should 
have  "  gone  to  their  graves  full  of  years,  honor,  sim- 
plicity, and  rum."  The  only  wonder  is,  when  the 
ministers  had  the  best  places  at  every  table,  at  every 
feast,  at  every  merry-making  in  New  England,  that 
stories  of  their  roistering  excesses  should  not  have 
come  down  to  us  as  there  have  of  the  intemperate 
clergy  of  Virginia. 

The  ordination  services  within  the  meeting-houses 
were  not  always  decorous  and  quiet  scenes.  In  spite 
of  the  reverence  which  our  forefathers  had  for  their 
church  and  their  ministers,  it  did  not  prevent  them 
from  bitterly  opposing  the  settlement  of  an  unwished- 
for  clergyman  over  them,  and  many  towns  were  racked 
and  divided,  then  as  now,  over  the  important  ques- 
tion. As  years  passed  on  the  church  members  grew 
bold  enough  to  dare  to  offer  personal  and  bodily 
opposition.  At  the  ordination  of  the  Rev.  Peter 
Thatcher  in  the  New  North  Church  in  Boston,  in  1720, 
there  were  two  parties.  The  members  who  did  not 
wish  him  to  be  settled  over  the  church  went  into  the 
meeting-house  and  made  a  great  disorder  and  clamor. 
They  forbade  the  proceedings,  and  went  into  the  gal- 
lery, and  threw  from  thence  water  and  missiles  on  the 
friends  of  the  clergymen  who  were  gathered  around 
him  at  the  altar.  Perhaps  they  obtained  courage  for 
these  sacrilegious  acts  from  the  barrels  of  rum  and 


280   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

the  bowls  of  strong  punch.  And  this  was  in  Puri- 
tanical Boston,  in  the  year  of  the  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  landing  of  the  Mayflower.  Thus  had 
one  century  changed  the  absolute  reverence  and  affec- 
tionate regard  of  the  Pilgrims  for  their  church,  their 
ministers,  and  their  meeting-houses,  to  irreverent  and 
obstinate  desire  for  personal  satisfaction.  No  wonder 
that  the  ministers  at  that  date  preached  and  believed 
that  Satan  was  making  fresh  and  increasing  efforts  to 
destroy  the  Puritan  church.  The  hour  was  ready  for 
Whitefield,  for  Edwards,  for  any  new  awakening  ;  and 
was  above  all  fast  approaching  for  the  sadly  needed 
temperance  reform. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  a  minister  was  ordained 
and  re-ordained  at  each  church  over  which  he  had 
charge ;  but  after  some  years  the  name  of  installation 
was  given  to  each  appointment  after  the  first  ordina- 
tion, and  the  ceremony  was  correspondingly  changed. 


XX. 

THE   MINISTERS. 

THE  picture  which  Colonel  Higginson  has  drawn  of 
the  Puritan  minister  is  so  well  known  and  so  graphic 
that  any  attempt  to  add  to  it  would  be  futile.  All 
the  succeeding  New  England  parsons,  as  years  rolled 
by,  were  not,  however,  like  the  black-gowned,  black- 
gloved,  stately,  and  solemn  man  whom  he  has  so 
clearly  shown  us.  Men  of  rigid  decorum  and  grave 
ceremony  there  were,  such  as  Dr.  Emmons  and  Jon- 
athan Edwards ;  but  there  were  parsons  also  of 
another  type,  —  eccentric,  unconventional,  and  un- 
dignified in  demeanor  and  dress.  Parson  Robinson, 
of  Duxbury,  persisted  in  wearing  in  the  pulpit,  as 
part  of  his  clerical  attire,  a  round  jacket  instead  of 
the  suitable  gown  or  Geneva  cloak,  and  he  was  known 
thereby  as  "  Master  Jack."  With  astonishing  in- 
consistency this  Master  Jack  objected  to  the  vil- 
lage blacksmith's  wearing  his  leathern  apron  into 
the  church,  and  he  assailed  the  offender  again  and 
again  with  words  and  hints  from  his  pulpit.  He 
was  at  last  worsted  by  the  grimaces  of  the  victori- 
ous smith  (where  was  the  Duxbury  tithingman  ?), 
and  indignantly  left  the  pulpit,  ejaculating,  "  I  '11 
not  preach  while  that  man  sits  before  me."  A  re- 


282   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

monstrating  parishioner  said  afterward  to  Master 
Jack,  "I'd  not  have  left  if  the  Devil  sat  there." 
"Neither  would  I"  was  the  quick  answer. 

Another  singular  article  of  attire  was  worn  in  the 
pulpit  by  Father  Mills,  of  Torrington,  though  neither 
in  irreverence  nor  indifference.  When  his  dearly 
loved  wife  died  he  pondered  how  he,  who  always 
wore  black,  could  express  to  the  world  that  he  was 
wearing  mourning ;  and  his  simple  heart  hit  upon 
this  grotesque  device  :  he  left  off  his  full-flowing  wig, 
and  tied  up  his  head  in  a  black  silk  handkerchief, 
which  he  wore  thereafter  as  a  trapping  of  woe. 

Parson  Judson,  of  Taunton,  was  so  lazy  that  he  used 
to  preach  while  sitting  down  in  the  pulpit ;  and  was 
so  contemptibly  fond  of  comfort  that  he  would  on 
summer  Sundays  give  out  to  the  sweltering  members 
of  his  congregation  the  longest  psalm  in  the  psalm- 
book,  and  then  desert  them  —  piously  perspiring  and 
fuguing  —  and  lie  under  a  tree  enjoying  the  cool  out- 
door breezes  until  the  long  psalm  was  ended,  escap- 
ing thus  not  only  the  heat  but  the  singing ;  and  when 
we  consider  the  quantity  and  quality  of  both,  and  that 
he  condemned  his  good  people  to  an  extra  amount  of 
each,  it  seems  a  piece  of  clerical  inhumanity  that 
would  be  hard  to  equal.  Surely  this  selfish  Taunton 
sybarite  was  the  prosaic  ideal  of  Hamlet's  words  :  — 

"  Some  ungracious  pastors  do 
Show  me  the  steep  and  thorny  way  to  Heaven, 
Whilst  like  a  puff'd  and  reckless  libertine 
Himself  the  primrose  path  of  dulliance  treads, 
And  recks  not  his  own  rede." 


THE  MINISTERS.  283 

But  lazy  and  slothful  ministers  were  fortunately  rare 
in  New  England.  No  primrose  path  of  dalliance  was 
theirs ;  industrious  and  hard-working  were  nearly  all 
the  early  parsons,  preaching  and  praying  twice  on 
the  Sabbath,  and  preaching  again  on  Lecture  days ; 
visiting  the  sick  and  often  giving  medical  and  "  chyr- 
urgycal  "  advice ;  called  upon  for  legal  counsel  and  ad- 
judication ;  occupied  in  spare  moments  in  teaching  and 
preparing  young  men  for  college ;  working  on  their 
farms ;  hearing  the  children  say  their  catechism ; 
fasting  and  praying  long,  weary  hours  in  their  own 
study,  —  truly  they  were  "pious  and  painful  preach- 
ers," as  Colonel  Higginson  saw  recorded  on  a  grave- 
stone in  Watertown.  Though  I  suspect  "painful" 
in  the  Puritan  vocabulary  meant  "  painstaking,"  did 
it  not  ?  Cotton  Mather  called  John  Fiske,  of  Chelms- 
ford,  a  "plaine  but  able  painful  and  useful  preach- 
er," while  President  Dunster,  of  Harvard  College,  was 
described  by  a  contemporary  divine  as  "  pious  pain- 
ful and  fit  to  teach."  Other  curious  epithets  and 
descriptions  were  applied  to  the  parsons ;  they  were 
called  "  holy-heavenly,"  "  sweet-affecting,"  "  soul-rav- 
ishing," "heaven-piercing,"  "angel-rivalling,"  "sub- 
til," "  irrefragable,"  "  angelical,"  "  septemfluous," 
"  holy-savoured,"  "  princely,"  "  soul-appetizing,"  "  full 
of  antic  tastes"  (meaning  having  the  tastes  of  an 
antiquary),  "  God-bearing."  Of  two  of  the  New  Eng- 
land saints  it  was  written :  — 

"  Thier  Temper  far  from  Injucundity, 
Thier  tongues  and  pens  from  Infecundity." 


284       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Many  other  fulsome,  turgid,  and  even  whimsical  ex- 
pressions of  praise  might  be  named,  for  the  Puritans 
were  rich  in  classic  sesquipedalian  adjectives,  and 
their  active  linguistic  consciences  made  them  equally 
fertile  in  producing  new  ones. 

Ready  and  unexpected  were  the  solemn  Puritans 
in  repartee.  A  party  of  gay  young  sparks,  meeting- 
austere  old  John  Cotton,  determined  to  guy  him.  One 
of  the  young  reprobates  went  up  to  him  and  whis- 
pered in  his  ear,  "  Cotton,  thou  art  an  old  fool."  u  1 
am,  I  am,"  was  the  unexpected  answer ;  "  the  Lord 
make  both  thee  and  me  wiser  than  we  are."  Two 
young  men  of  like  intent  met  Mr.  Haynes,  of  Ver- 
mont, and  said  with  mock  sad  faces,  "  Have  you 
heard  the  news  ?  the  Devil  is  dead."  Quick  came 
the  answer,  "  Oh,  poor,  fatherless  children  !  what  will 
become  of  you  ? " 

Gloomy  and  depressed  of  spirits  they  were  often. 
The  good  Warham,  who  could  take  faithful  and  brave 
charge  of  his  flock  in  the  uncivilized  wilds  of  Connec- 
ticut among  ferocious  savages,  was  tortured  by  doubts 
and  "  blasphemous  suggestions,"  and  overwhelmed  by 
unbelief,  enduring  specially  agonizing  scruples  about 
administering  and  partaking  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and 
was  thus  perplexed  and  buffeted  until  the  hour  of  his 
sad  death.  The  ministers  went  through  various  stages 
of  uncertainty  and  gloom,  from  the  physical  terror  of 
Dr.  Cogswell  in  a  thunderstorm,  through  vacillating 
and  harassing  convictions  about  the  Half  Way  Cove- 
nant, through  doubt  of  God,  of  salvation,  of  heaven, 


THE  MINISTERS.  285 

of  eternite,  particularly  distressing  suspicions  about 
the  reality  of  hell  and  the  personality  of  the  Devil,  to 
the  stage  of  deep  melancholy  which  was  shown  in  its 
highest  type  in  "  Handkerchief  Moody,"  who  preached 
and  prayed  and  always  appeared  in  public  with  a 
handkerchief  over  his  face,  and  gave  to  Hawthorne 
the  inspiration  for  his  story  of  "  The  Black  Veil." 
Rev.  Mr.  Bradstreet,  of  the  First  Church  of  Charles- 
town,  was  so  hypochondriacal  that  he  was  afraid  to 
preach  in  the  pulpit,  feeling  sure  that  he  would  die 
if  he  entered  therein ;  so  he  always  delivered  his 
sermons  to  his  patient  congregation  from  the  deacons' 
pew.  Mr.  Bradstreet  was  unconventional  in  many 
other  respects,  and  was  far  from  being  a  typical 
Puritan  minister.  He  seldom  wore  a  coat,  but  gen- 
erally appeared  in  a  plaid  gown,  and  was  always  seen 
with  a  pipe  in  his  mouth,  —  a  most  disreputable 
addition  to  the  clerical  toilet  at  that  date,  or,  in  truth, 
at  any  date.  He  was.  a  learned  and  pious  man,  how- 
ever, and  was  thus  introduced  to  a  fellow  clergyman, 
"  Here  is  a  man  who  can  whistle  Greek." 

Scarcely  one  of  the  early  Puritan  ministers  was 
free  from  the  sad  shadow  of  doubt  and  fear.  No 
"  rose-pink  or  dirty-drab  views  of  humanity "  were 
theirs  ;  all  was  inky-black.  And  it  is  impossible  to 
express  the  gloom  and  the  depression  of  spirit  which 
fall  on  one  now,  after  these  centuries  of  prosperous 
and  cheerful  years,  when  one  considers  thoughtfully 
the  deep  and  despairing  agony  of  mind  endured  by 
these  good,  brave,  steadfast,  godly  Puritan  ministers. 


286   THE  SABBATH  IN  PUEITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Read,  for  instance,  the  sentences  from  the  diary  of 
the  Rev.  John  Baily,  or  of  Nathaniel  Mather,  as  given 
by  Cotton  Mather  in  his  "  Magnalia."  Mather  says 
that  poor,  sad,  heart-sick  Baily  was  filled  with  "  de- 
sponding jealousies,"  "  disconsolate  uneasinesses," 
gloomy  fears,  and  thinks  the  words  from  his  diary 
u  may  be  profitable  to  some  discouraged  minds." 
Profitable  !  Ah,  no ;  far  from  it !  The  overwhelm- 
ing blackness  of  despair,  the  woful  doubts  and  fears 
about  destruction  and  utter  annihilation  which  he  felt 
so  deeply  and  so  continually,  fall  in  a  heavy,  impene- 
trable cloud  upon  us  as  we  read,  until  we  feel  that  we 
too  are  in  the  "  Suburbs  of  hell  "  and  are  "  eternally 
damned." 

But  in  succeeding  years  they  were  not  always 
gloomy  and  not  always  staidt,  as  we  know  from  the 
stories  of  the  cheerful  parlies  at  ordination-times ; 
and  I  doubt  not  the  reverend  Assembly  of  Elders  at 
Cambridge  enjoyed  to  the  full  degree  the  twelve  gal- 
lons of  sack  and  six  gallons  of  white  wine  sent  to 
them  by  the  Court  as  a  testimony  of  deep  respect. 
And  the  group  of  clergymen  who  were  painted  over 
the  mantelpiece  of  Parson  Lowell,  of  Xewbury,  must 
have  been  far  from  gloomy,  as  the  punch-bowl  and 
drinking-cups  and  tobacco  and  pipes  would  testify, 
and  their  cheerful  motto  likewise :  "  In  essentials 
unity,  in  non-essentials  liberty,  in  all  things  charity." 
And  the  Rev.  Mr.  —  no,  I  will  not  tell  his  name  — 
kept  an  account  with  one  Jerome  Ripley,  a  store- 
keeper, and  on  one  page  of  this  account-book,  con- 


THE  MINISTERS.  287 

taining  thirty-nine  entries,  twenty-one  were  for  New 
England  rum.  It  somewhat  lessens  in  our  notions 
the  personal  responsibility,  or  the  personal  potatory 
capability  of  the  parson,  to  discover  that  there  was 
an  ordination  in  town  during  that  rum-paged  week, 
and  that  the  visiting  ministers  probably  drank  the 
greater  portion  of  Jerome  Ripley's  liquor.  But  I 
wish  the  store-keeper  had  —  to  save  this  parson's  rep- 
utation among  succeeding  generations  —  called  and 
entered  the  rum  as  hay,  or  tea,  or  nails,  or  anything 
innocent  and  virtuous  and  clerical.  When  we  read  of 
all  these  doings  and  drinkings  of  the  old  New  Eng- 
land ministers,  —  "if  ancient  tales  say  true,  nor  wrong 
these  ancient  ,men "  —  we  feel  that  we  cannot  so 
fiercely  resent  nor  wonder  at  the  degrading  coupling 
in  Byron's  sneering  lines :  — 

"  There  's  naught,  no  doubt,  so  much  the  spirit  cairns, 
As  rum  and  true  religion."' 

All  the  cider  made  by  the  New  England  elders  did 
not  tend  to  gloom,  and  they  were  celebrated  for  their 
fine  cider.  The  best  cider  in  Massachusetts  —  that 
which  brought  the  highest  price  —  was  known  as  the 
Arminian  cider,  because  the  minister  who  furnished  it 
to  the  market  was  suspected  of  having  Arminian  ten- 
dencies. A  very  telling  compliment  to  the  cider  of  one 
of  the  first  New  England  ministers  is  thus  recorded : 
"  Mr.  Whiting  had  a  score  of  appill-trees  from  which 
he  made  delicious  cyder.  And  it  hath  been  said  yt 
an  Indyan  once  coming  to  hys  house  and  Mistress 


288   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Whiting  giving  him  a  drink  of  ye  cyder,  he  did  sett 
down  ye  pot  and  smaking  his  lips  say  yt  Adam  and 
Eve  were  rightlie  damned  for  eating  ye  appills  in  ye 
garden  of  Eden,  they  should  have  made  them  into 
cyder."  This  perverse  application  of  good  John 
Eliot's  teaching  would  have  vexed  the  apostle  sorely. 
Of  so  much  account  were  the  barrels  of  cider,  and 
so  highly  were  they  prized  by  the  ministers,  that  one 
honest  soul  did  not  hesitate  to  thank  the  Lord  in  the 
pulpit  for  the  •'  many  barrels  of  cider  vouchsafed  to 
us  this  year." 

Stronger  liquors  than  cider  were  also  manufactured 
by  the  ministers,  —  and  by  God-fearing,  pious  minis- 
ters also.  They  did  not  hesitate  to  own  and  operate 
distilleries.  Rev.  Nathan  Strong,  pastor  of  the  First 
Church  of  Hartford  and  author  of  the  hymn  "  Swell 
the  anthem,  raise  the  song,"  was  engaged  in  the  dis- 
tilling business  and  did  not  make  a  success  of  it 
either.  Having  become  bankrupt,  he  did  not  dare 
show  his  head  anywhere  in  public  for  some  time, 
except  on  Sunday,  for  fear  of  arrest.  This  disrepu- 
table and  most  unclerical  affair  did  not  operate 
against  him  in  the  minds  of  the  contemporaneous 
public,  for  ten  years  later  he  received  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Princeton  College ;  and  lie 
did  not  hesitate  to  joke  about  his  liquor  manufactur- 
ing, saying  to  two  of  his  brother-clergymen,  "  Oh,  we 
are  all  three  in  the  same  boat  together,  —  Brother 
Prime  raises  the  grain,  I  distil  it,  and  Brother  Flint 
drinks  it." 


THE  MINISTERS.  289 

Impostors  there  were  —  false  parsons  —  in  the  early 
struggling  days  of  New  England  (since  "  the  devil 
was  never  weary  and  never  ceasing  in  disturbing  the 
peace  of  the  new  English  church"),  and  they  plagued 
the  colonists  sorely.  The  very  first  shepherd  of  the 
wandering  flock  —  Mr.  Lyford,  who  preached  to  the 
planters  in  1624  —  was,  as  Bradford  says,  "  most 
unsavory  salt,"  a  most  agonizing  and  unbearable 
thorn  in  the  flesh  and  spirit  of  the  poor  homesick 
Pilgrims  ;  and  he  was  finally  banished  to  Virginia, 
where  it  was  supposed  that  he  would  find  congenial 
and  un-Puritanlike  companions.  Another  bold-faced 
cheat  preached  to  the  colonists  a  most  impressive 
sermon  on  the  text,  "Let  him  that  stole  steal  no 
more,"  while  his  own  pockets  were  stuffed  out  with 
stolen  money.  "  Out  of  the  fulness  of  the  heart  the 
mouth  speaketh." 

Dicky  Swayn, "  after  a  thousand  rogueries,"  set  up  as 
a  parson  in  Boston.  But.  unfortunately  for  him,  he 
prayed  too  loud  and  too  long  on  one  occasion,  and  his 
prayer  attracted  the  attention  of  a  woman  whose  ser- 
vant he  had  formerly  been.  She  promptly  exposed  his 
false  pretensions  and  past  villanies,  and  he  left  Boston 
and  an  army  of  cheated  creditors.  In  1699  two  other . 
attractive  and  plausible  scamps  —  Kingsbury  and  May 
-  garbed  and  curried  themselves  as  ministers,  and 
went  through  a  course  of  unchecked  villany,  building 
only  on  their  agreeable  presence.  Cotton  Mather 
wrote  pertinently  of  one  of  these  charmers,  "  Fascina- 
tion is  a  thing  whereof  mankind  has  more  Experience 


290       THE  SABBATH  IX  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

than  Comprehension ; "  and  he  also  wrote  very  de- 
spitefully  of  the  adventurer's  scholarly  attainments 
saying  there  were  "  eighteen  horrid  false  spells  and 
not  one  point  in  one  very  short  note  I  received  from 
him."  As  the  population  increased,  so  also  did  the 
list  of  dishonest  impostors,  who  made  a  cloak  of 
religion  most  effectively  to  aid  them  in  deceiving  the 
religious  community  ;  and  sometimes,  alas !  the  or- 
dained clergymen  became  sad  backsliders. 

Nor  were  the  pious  and  godly  Puritan  divines  above 
the  follies  and  frailties  of  other  men  in  other  places 
and  in  other  times.  It  can  be  said  of  them,  as  of  the 
Jew,  had  they  not  "  eyes,  hands,  organs,  dimensions, 
senses,  affections,  passions  ?  "  —  were  they  not  as  other 
men  ?  It  is  recorded  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting,  of 
Lynn,  that  "  once  coming  among  a  gay  partie  of  yong 
people  he  kist  all  ye  maides  and  said  yt  he  felt  all  ye 
better  for  it."  And  who  can  doubt  it  ?  Even  that 
extreme  type,  that  highest  pinnacle  of  American  Puri- 
tanical bigotry,  —  solemn  and  learned  Cotton  Mather, 
—  had,  when  he  was  a  mourning  widower,  a  most 
amusing  amorous  episode  with  a  rather  doubtful,  a 
decidedly  shady,  young  Boston  woman,  whom  he  styled 
an  "Ingenious  Child,"  but  who  was  far  from  being  an 
ingenuous  child.  "  She,"  as  he  proudly  stated,  "  be- 
came charmed  with  my  person  to  such  a  degree  that 
she  could  not  but  break  in  upon  me  with  her  most 
importunate  requests."  And  a  very  handsome  and 
thoroughly  attractive  person  does  his  portrait  show 
even  to  modern  eves.  Poor  Cotton  resisted  the  wiles 


THE  MINISTERS.  291 

of  the  devil  in  this  alluring  form,  though  he  had 
to  fast  and  pray  three  consecutive  nights  ere  the 
strong  Puritan  spirit  conquered  the  weak  flesh,  and 
he  could  consent  and  resolve  to  give  up  the  thought 
of  marrying  the  siren.  His  self-denial  and  firmness 
deserved  a  better  reward  than  the  very  trying  matri- 
monial "  venture  "  that  he  afterwards  made. 

Many  another  Puritan  parson  has  left  record  of  his 
wooings  that  are  warm  to  read.  And  well  did  the  par- 
sons' wives  deserve  their  ardent  wooings  and  their 
tender  love-letters.  Hard  as  was  the  minister's  life, 
over-filled  as  was  his  time,  highly  taxed  as  were  his 
resources,  all  these  hardships  were  felt  in  double  pro- 
portion by  the  minister's  wife.  The  old  Hebrew 
standard  of  praise  quoted  by  Cotton  Mather,  "  A 
woman  worthy  to  be  the  wife  of  a  priest,"  was  keenly 
epigrammatic ;  and  ample  proof  of  the  wise  insight  of 
the  standard  of  comparison  may  be  found  in  the 
lives  of  "  the  pious,  prudent,  and  prayerful "  wives 
of  New  England  ministers.  What  wonder  that  their 
praises  were  sung  in  many  loving  though  halting 
threnodies,  in  long-winded  but  tender  eulogies,  in 
labored  anagrams,  in  quaintly  spelled  epitaphs  ?  —  for 
the  ministers'  wives  were  the  saints  of  the  Puritan 
calendar. 


XXI. 

THE   MINISTERS'   PAY. 

THE  salaries  of  New  England  clergymen  were  not 
large  in  early  days,  but  the  £60  or  £70  which  they 
each  were  yearly  voted  was  quite  enough  to  suitably 
support  them  in  that  new  country  of  plain  ways  and 
plain  living,  if  they  only  received  it,  which  was,  alas  ! 
not  always  the  case.  The  First  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1630,  set  the  amount  of  the  minister's 
annual  stipend  to  be  £20  or  £30  according  to  the 
wealth  of  the  community,  and  made  it  a  public  charge. 
In  1659  the  highest  salary  paid  in  Suffolk  County  was 
£100  to  Mr.  Thatcher,  and  the  lowest  was  £40  to  the 
clergyman  at  Hull.  The  minister  of  the  Andover 
church  was  voted  a  salary  of  £60, and  "when  he  shall 
have  occacion  to  marry,  £10  more."  He  was  very 
glad,  however,  to  take  £42  in  hard  cash  instead  of 
£60  in  corn  and  labor,  which  were  at  that  time  the 
most  popular  forms  of  ministerial  remuneration  ;  even 
though  the  "hard  cash"  were  in  the  form  of  wam- 
pum, beaver-skins,  or  leaden  bullets. 

Many  congregations,  though  the  members  were  so 
pious  and  godly,  were  pretty  sharp  in  bargaining  with 
their  preachers ;  for  instance,  the  church  in  New 
London  made  its  new  parson  sign  a  contract  that 


THE   MINISTERS'  PAY.  293 

"  in  case  he  remove  before  the  year  is  out,  he  return- 
eth  the  <£80  paid  him."  Often  clergymen  would 
"  supply  "  (or  "  Sipploye,"  or  "  syploy  "  or  "  sipply," 
or  ".  seiploy,"  as  various  records  have  it)  from  month 
to  month  without "  settling."  As  they  got  the  "  keepe 
of  a  hors,"  and  their  own  board  for  Saturday  and 
Sunday,  and  on  Monday  morning  a  cash  payment  for 
preaching  (though  often  the  amount  was  only  twelve 
shillings),  they  were  richer  than  with  a  small  yearly 
salary  that  was  irregularly  and  inconveniently  paid. 
Often  too  they  entered  by  preference  into  a  yearly 
contract  with  a  church,  without  any  wish  for  regular 
settlement  or  ordination. 

A  large  portion  of  the  stipends  in  early  parishes 
being  paid  in  corn  and  labor,  the  amounts  were  es- 
tablished by  fixed  rate  upon  the  inhabitants  ;  and  the 
amount  of  land  owned  and  cultivated  by  each  church- 
member  was  considered  in  reckoning  his  assessment. 
These  amounts  were  called  voluntary  contributions. 
If,  however,  any  citizen  refused  to  "  contribute,"  he 
was  taxed ;  and  if  he  refused  to  pay  his  church-tax 
he  could  be  fined,  imprisoned,  or  pilloried.  For  one 
hundred  years  the  ministers'  salaries  in  Boston  were 
paid  by  these  so-called  "  voluntary  contributions."  In 
one  church  it  was  voted  that  "  the  Deacons  have  lib- 
erty for  a  quarter  of  a  yeare  to  git  in  every  mans 
sume  either  in  a  Church  way  or  in  a  Christian  way." 
I  would  the  process  employed  in  the  "  Church  way  " 
were  recorded,  since  it  differed  so  from  the  Christian 
way. 


294    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

It  is  one  of  the  Puritan  paradoxes  that  abounded  in 
New  England,  that  the  community  of  New  Haven,  a 
"  State  whose  Desire  was  Religion,"  and  religion 
alone,  was  particularly  backward  in  paying  the  min- 
ister who  had  spiritual  charge  there.  After  much 
trouble  in  deciding  about  the  form  and  quality  of  the 
currency  which  should  be  used  in  pay,  since  so  much 
bad  wampum  was  thrust  upon  the  deacons  at  the 
public  contributions,  it  was  in  1651  enacted  that 
"  whereas  it  is  taken  notice  of  that  Divers  give  not 
into  the  Treasury  at  all  on  the  Lords  Day,  it  is  de- 
creed that  all  such  if  they  give  not  freely,  of  them- 
selves be  rated  according  to  the  Jurisdiction  order  for 
the  Ministers  Maintaynance."  The  delinquents  were 
ordered  to  bring  their  "  rate "  to  the  Deacon'3  house 
at  once.  A  presuming  young  man  ventured  to  sug- 
gest that  the  recreant  members  who  would  not  pay 
in  the  face  of  the  whole  congregation  would  hardly 
rush  to  the  Deacon's  door  to  give  in  their  "rate." 
He  was  severely  ordered  to  keep  silence  in  the  com- 
pany of  wiser  and  elder  people ;  but  time  proved  his 
simply  wise  supposition  to  be  correct ;  and  many  and 
various  were  the  devices  and  forces  which  the  deacons 
were  obliged  to  use  to  obtain  the  minister's  rate  in 
New  Haven. 

Some  few  bold  Puritan  souls  dared  to  protest 
against  being  forced  to  pay  the  church  rate  whether 
they  wished  to  or  not.  Lieutenant  Fuller,  of  Barns- 
table,  was  fined  fifty  shillings  for  "  prophanely  "  saying 
"that  the  law  enacted  about  the  ministers  mainte- 


THE  MINISTERS'  PAY.  295 

nance  was  a  wicked  and  devilish  one,  and  that  the 
devil  sat  at  the  helm  when  the  law  was  made."  Such 
courageous  though  profane  expressions  of  revolt  but 
little  availed ;  for  not  only  were  members  and  attend- 
ants of  the  Puritan  churches  taxed,  but  Quakers,  Bap- 
tists, and  Church-of -England  men  were  also  "  rated," 
and  if  they  refused  to  pay  to  help  support  the 
church  that  they  abhorred,  they  were  fined  and  im- 
prisoned. One  man,  of  Watertown,  named  Briscoe, 
dared  to  write  a  book  against  the  violent  enforcement 
of  "  voluntary  "  subscriptions.  He  was  fined  <£10  for 
his  wickedness ;  and  the  printer  of  the  book  was  also 
punished.  A  virago  in  New  London,  more  openly 
courageous,  threw  scalding  water  on  the  head  of  the 
tithingman  who  came  to  collect  the  minister's  rate. 
Old  John  Cotton  preached  long  and  earnestly  upon 
the  necessity  and  propriety  of  raising  the  money  for 
the  minister's  salary,  and  for  other  expenses  of  the 
church,  wholly  by  voluntary  and  eagerly  given  con- 
tributions,—  the  "Lord  having  directed  him  to  make 
it  clear  by  Scripture."  He  believed  that  tithes  and 
church-taxes  were  productive  of  "  pride,  contention 
and  sloth,"  and  indicated  a  declining  spiritual  condi- 
tion of  the  church.  But  it  was  a  strange  voluntary 
gift  he  wished,  that  was  forced  by  dread  of  the 
pillory  and  cage ! 

Since,,  as  Higginson  said,  "  New  England  was  a 
plantation  of  Religion,  not  a  plantation  of  Trade,"  the 
church  and  its  support  were  of  course  the  first  thought 
in  laying  out  a  new  town-settlement,  and  some  of 


296    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

the  best  town-lots  were  always  set  aside  for  the  "  yuse 
of  the  minister."  Sometimes  these  lots  were  a  gift 
outright  to  the  first  settled  preacher,  in  other  town- 
ships they  were  set  aside  as  glebes,  or  "  ministry 
land  "  as  it  was  called.  It  was  a  universal  custom  to 
build  at  once  a  house  for  the  minister,  and  some  very 
queer  contracts  and  stipulations  for  the  size,  shape, 
and  quality  of  the  parson's  home-edifice  may  be  read 
in  church-records.  To  the  construction  of  this  house 
all  the  town  contributed,  as  also  to  the  building  of  the 
meeting-house ;  some  gave  work ;  some,  the  use  of  a 
horse  or  ox-team ;  some,  boards ;  some,  stones  or 
brick ;  some,  logs ;  others,  nails ;  and  a  1'cw,  a  very 
few,  money.  At  the  house-raising  a  good  dinner  was 
provided,  and  of  course,  plenty  of  liquor.  Some  mal- 
contents rebelled  against  being  forced  to  work  on 
the  minister's  house.  Entries  of  fines  are  common 
enough  for  "  refusing  to  dig  on  the  Minister's  Selor," 
for  neglecting  to  send  "  the  Minister's  Nayles,"  for 
refusing  to  "contribute  clay-boards,"  etc.  As  with 
the  town-lot,  the  house  sometimes  was  a  gift  outright 
to  the  clergyman,  and  ofttimes  the  ownership  was  re- 
tained by  the  church,  and  the  free  use  only  was  given 
to  each  minister. 

It  was  a  universal  custom  to  allow  free  pasturage 
for  the  minister's  horse,  for  which  the  village  burial- 
ground  was  assigned  as  a  favorite  feeding-ground. 
Sometimes  this  privilege  of  free  pasturage  was  abused. 
In  Plymouth,  in  1789,  Rev.  Chandler  Robbins  was  re- 
quested "  not  to  have  more  horses  than  shall  be  neces- 


THE  MINISTERS'  PAY.  297 

sary,  for  his  many  horses  that  had  been  pastured  on 
"Burial  Hill"  had  sadly  damaged  and  defaced  the 
gravestones,  —  perhaps  the  very  headstones  placed 
over  the  bones  of  our  Pilgrim  Fathers. 

The  "  strangers'  money,"  which  was  the  money  con- 
tributed by  visitors  who  chanced  to  attend  the  ser- 
vices, and  which  was  sometimes  specified  as  "  all  the 
silver  and  black  dogs  given  by  strangers,"  was  usually 
given  to  the  minister.  A  "  black  dog "  was  a  "  dog 
dollar." 

Often  a  settlement  or  a  sum  of  money  was  given 
outright  to  the  clergyman  when  he  was  first  ordained 
or  settled  in  the  parish.  At  a  town  meeting  in  Sharon, 
January  8,  1755,  which  was  held  with  regard  to  pro- 
curing a  new  minister,  it  was  voted  "  that  a  committe 
confer  with  Mr.  Smith,  and  know  which  will  be  more 
acceptable  to  him,  to  have  a  larger  settlement  and  a 
smaller  salary,  or  a  larger  salary  and  a  smaller  settle- 
ment, and  make  report  to  this  meeting."  On  Jan. 
15th  it  was  voted  "  that  we  give  to  said  Mr.  Smith 
420  ounces  of  silver  or  equivalent  in  old  Tenor  bills, 
for  a  settlement,  to  be  paid  in  three  years  after  settle- 
ment. That  we  give  to  said  Mr.  Smith  220  Spanish 
dollars  or  an  equivalent  in  old  Tenor  bills  for  his 
yearly  salary."  Mr.  Smith  was  very  generous  to  his 
new  parish,  for  his  acceptance  of  its  call  contains  this 
clause :  "  As  it  will  come  heavy  upon  some  perhaps  to 
pay  salary  and  settlement  together  I  have  thought  of 
releasing  part  of  the  payment  of  the  salary  for  a  time 
to  be  paid  to  me  again.  The  first  year  I  shall  allow 


298        THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

you  out  of  the  salary  you  have  voted  me  40  dollars, 
the  2nd  30  dollars,  the  3rd  15,  the  4th  year  20  to  be 
repaid  to  me  again,  the  5th  year  20  more,  the  6th 
year  20  more  and  the  25  dollars  that  remain,  I  am 
willing  that  the  town  should  keep  'em  for  its  own 
use."  He  was  apparently  "  willing  to  live  very  low," 
as  Parson  Eliot  humbly  and  pathetically  wrote  in  a 
petition  to  his  church. 

The  Puritan  ministers  in  New  England  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  were  all  good  Whigs ;  they  hated  the 
English  kings,  fully  believing  that  those  stupid  rulers, 
who  really  cared  little  for  the  Church  of  England,  were 
burning  with  pious  zeal  to  make  Episcopacy  the  estab- 
lished church  of  the  colonies,  and  knowing  that  were 
that  deed  accomplished  they  themselves  would  prob- 
ably lose  their  homes  and  means  of  livelihood.  They 
were  the  most  eager  of  Republicans  and  patriots,  and 
many  of  them  were  good  and  brave  soldiers  in  the 
Revolution. 

When  the  minister  acquired  the  independence  he 
so  longed  and  fought  for,  it  was  not  all  his  fancy 
painted  it.  He  found  himself  poor  indeed,  —  practi- 
cally penniless.  He  complained  sadly  that  he  was 
paid  his  salary  in  the  worthless  continental  paper 
money,  and  he  refused  to  take  it.  Often  he  cannily 
took  merchandise  of  all  kinds  instead  of  the  low- 
valued  paper  money,  and  he  became  a  good  and  sharp 
trader,  exchanging  his  various  goods  for  whatever  he 
needed  —  and  could  get.  Merchandise  was,  indeed, 
far  preferable  to  money.  The  petition  of  Rev.  Mr. 


THE  MINISTERS'  PAY.  299 

Barnes  to  his  Willsborongh  people  has  been  preserved, 
and  he  thus  speaks  of  his  salary :  "  In  1775  the  war 
comenced  &  Paper  money  was  emitted  which  soon 
began  to  depreciate  and  the  depreciation  was  so 
rappid  that  in  may  1777  your  Pastor  gave  the  whole 
of  his  years  Salary  for  one  sucking  Calf,  the  next 
year  he  gave  the  whole  for  a  small  store  pig.  Your 
Pastor  has  not  asked  for  any  consideration  being 
willing  to  try  to  Scrabble  along  with  the  people  while 
they  are  in  low  circumstances."  His  neighbor.,  Rev. 
Mr.  Sprague,  of  Dublin,  formally  petitioned  his  church 
not  to  increase  his  salary,  "  as  I  am  plagued  to  death 
to  get  what  is  owing  to  me  now,"  or  to  buy  anything 
with  it  when  he  got  it.  The  minister  in  Scarborough 
had  to  be  paid  £5,400  in  paper  money  to  make  good 
his  salary  of  <£60  in  gold  which  had  been  voted  him. 

"  Living  low "  and  "  scrabbling  along  "  seems  to 
have  been  the  normal  and  universal  condition  of  the 
New  England  minister  for  some  time  after  the  War  of 
Independence.  He  was  obliged  to  go  without  his  pay, 
or  to  take  it  in  whatever  shape  it  might  chance  to 
be  tendered.  Indeed,  from  the  earliest  colonial  days 
it  was  true  that  of  whatever  they  had,  the  church- 
members  gave ;  meal,  maize,  beans,  cider,  lumber, 
merchantable  pork,  apples,  "  English  grains,"  pump- 
kins, —  all  were  paid  to  the  parson.  Part  of  the 
stipend  of  a  minister  on  Cape  Cod  was  two  hundred 
fish  yearly  from  each  parishioner,  with  which  to  fer- 
tilize his  sandy  corn-land.  In  Plymouth,  in  1662,  the 
following  method  of  increasing  the  minister's  income 


300         THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

was  suggested  :  "  The  Court  Proposeth  it  as  a  thing 
that  they  judge  would  be  very  commendable  and 
beneficiall  to  the  townes  where  God's  providence 
shall  cast  any  whales,  if  they  should  agree  to  set 
aparte  some  p'te  of  every  such  fish  or  oyle  for  the 
Incouragement  of  an  able  and  godly  minister  among 
them."  In  Sandwich,  also,  the  parson  had  a  part  of 
every  whale  that  came  ashore. 

Various  gifts,  too,  came  to  the  preachers.  In  New- 
bury  the  first  salmon  caught  each  year  in  the  weir 
was  left  by  will  to  the  parson.  Judge  Sewall  records 
that  he  visited  the  minister  and  a  carried  him  a 
Bushel  of  Turnips,  cost  me  five  shillings,  and  a 
Cabbage  cost  half  a  Crown."  Such  a  high-priced 
cabbage  ! 

That  New  England  country  institution  —  the  "  do- 
nation party"  to  the  minister — was  evolved  at  a 
later  date.  At  these  donation  parties  the  unfortunate 
shepherd  of  the  flock  often  received  much  that  neither 
he  nor  the  wily  donors  could  use,  while  more  valuable 
and  useful  gifts  were  lacking. 

A  very  material  plenishing  of  the  minister's  house 
was  often  furnished  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  by  the  annual  "  Spinning  Bee."  On  a 
given  day  the  women  of  the  parish,  each  bearing  her 
own  spinning-wheel  and  flax,  assembled  at  the  minis- 
ter's house  and  spun  for  his  wife  great  "  runs "  of 
linen  thread,  which  were  afterward  woven  into  linen 
for  the  use  of  the  parson  and  his  family.  In  New- 
bury,  April  20, 1768,  "  Young  ladies  met  at  the  house 


THE  MINISTERS'  PAY.  301 

of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Parsons,  who  preached  to  them  a 
sermon  from  Proverbs  31-19.  They  spun  and  pre- 
sented to  Mrs.  Parsons  two  hundred  and  seventy 
skeins  of  good  yarn."  They  drank  "  liberty  tea." 
This  makeshift  of  a  beverage  was  made  of  the  four- 
leaved  loosestrife.  The  herb  was  pulled  up  like  flax, 
its  stalks  were  stripped  of  the  leaves  and  were  boiled. 
The  leaves  were  put  in  a  kettle  and  basted  with  the 
liquor  distilled  from  the  stalks.  After  this  the  leaves 
were  dried  in  an  oven  to  use  in  the  same  manner  as 
tea-leaves.  Liberty  tea  sold  readily  for  sixpence  a 
pound.  In  1787  these  same  Newbury  women  spun 
two  hundred  and  thirty-six  skeins  of  thread  and  yarn 
for  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Murray.  Some  were 
busy  spinning,  some  reeling  and  carding,  and  some 
combing  the  flax,  while  the  minister  preached  to  them 
on  the  text  from  Exodus  xxxv.  25  :  "  And  all  the 
women  that  were  wise-hearted  did  spin  with  their 
hands."  These  spinning-bees  were  everywhere  in 
vogue,  and  formed  a  source  of  much  profit  to  the 
parson,  and  of  pleasure  to  the  spinners,  in  spite  of 
the  sermons. 

Pieced  patchwork  bed-quilts  for  the  minister's 
family  were  also  given  by  the  women  of  the  congre- 
gation. Sometimes  each  woman  furnished  a  neatly 
pieced  square,  and  all  met  at  the  parsonage  and 
joined  and  quilted  the  coverlet.  At  other  times  the 
minister's  wife  made  the  patchwork  herself,  but  the 
women  assembled  and  transformed  it  into  quilts  for 
her.  The  parson  was  helped  also  in  his  individual 


302       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

work.  When  the  rye  or  wheat  or  grain  on  the  min- 
ister's land  was  full  grown  and  ready  for  reaping 
and  mowing,  the  men  in  his  parish  gave  him  gladly 
a  day's  work  in  harvesting,  and  in  turn  he  furnished 
them  plenty  of  good  rum  to  drink,  else  there  were 
"  great  uneasyness."  The  New  England  men  were 
not  forced  to  drink  liberty  tea. 

One  universal  contribution  to  the  support  of  the 
minister  all  over  New  England  was  cord-wood ;  and 
the  "  minister's  wood "  is  an  institution  up  to  the 
present  day  in  the  few  thickly  wooded  districts  that 
remain.  A  load  of  wood  was  usually  given  by  each 
male  church-member,  and  he  was  expected  to  deliver 
the  gift  at  the  door  of  the  parsonage.  Sixty  loads  a 
year  were  a  fair  allowance,  but  the  number  some- 
times ran  up  to  one  hundred,  as  was  furnished  to 
Parson  Chauncey,  of  Durham.  Rev.  Mr.  Parsons,  of 
East  Hadley,  was  the  greatest  wood-consumer  among 
the  old  ministers  of  whom  I  have  chanced  to  read. 
Good,  cheerful,  roaring  fires  must  the  Parsons  family 
have  kept;  for  in  1774  he  had  eighty  loads  of  wood 
supplied  to  him  ;  in  1751  he  was  furnished  with  one 
hundred  loads  ;  in  1763  the  amount  had  increased 
to  one  hundred  and  twenty  loads,  when  the  parish 
was  glad  to  make  a  compromise  with  their  extrava- 
gant shepherd  and  pay  him  instead  ,£13  6s  Sd  annu- 
ally in  addition  to  his  regular  salary,  and  let  him  buy 
or  cut  his  own  wood.  Firewood  at  that  time  in  that 
town  was  worth  only  the  expense  of  cutting  and  haul- 
ing to  the  house.  A  "  load  "  of  wood  contained  about 


THE   MINISTERS'  PAY.  303 

three  quarters  of  a  cord,  and  until  after  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  was  worth  in  the  vicinity  of  Hadley  only 
three  shillings  a  load.  The  minister's  loads  were 
expected  to  be  always  of  good  "  hard-wood."  One 
thrifty  parson,  while  watching  a  farmer  unload  his 
yearly  contribution,  remarked,  "  Is  n't  that  pretty 
soft  wood  ? "  "  And  don't  we  sometimes  have  pretty 
soft  preaching  ? "  was  the  answer.  It  was  well  that 
the  witty  retort  was  not  made  a  century  earlier ;  for 
the  speaker  would  have  been  punished  by  a  fine, 
since  they  fined  so  sharply  anything  that  savored 
of  "  speaking  against  the  minister."  In  some  towns 
a  day  was  appointed  which  was  called  a  "  wood- 
spell,"  when  it  was  ordered  that  all  the  wood  be 
delivered  at  the  parson's  door ;  and  thus  the  farmers 
formed  a  cheerful  gathering,  at  which  the  minister 
furnished  plentiful  flip,  or  grog,  to  the  wood-givers. 
Rev.  Stephen  Williams,  of  Longmeadow,  never  failed 
to  make  a  note  of  the  "  wood-sleddings  "  in  his  diary. 
He  wrote  on  Jan.  25, 1757,  "  Neighbors  sledded  wood 
for  me  and  shewed  a  Good  Humour.  I  rejoice  at  it. 
The  Lord  bless  them  that  are  out  of  humour  and  brot 
no  wood."  In  other  towns  the  wood  did  not  always 
come  in  when  it  was  wanted  or  needed,  and  winter 
found  the  parsonage  woodshed  empty.  Rev.  Mr. 
French,  of  Andover,  gave  out  this  notice  in  his  pulpit 
one  Sunday  in  November  :  "  I  will  write  two  discourses 
and  deliver  them  in  this  meeting-house  on  Thanks- 
giving Day,  provided  I  can  manage  to  write  them 
without  a  fire"  We  can  be  sure  that  Monday  morn- 


304   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

ing  saw  several  loads  of  good  hard  wood  deposited  at 
the  parson's  door. 

Other  ministers  did  not  hesitate  to  demand  their 
cord-wood  most  openly,  while  still  others  became 
adepts  in  hinting  and  begging,  not  only  for  wood, 
but  for  other  supplies.  It  is  told  of  a  Newbury 
parson  that  he  rode  from  house  to  house  one  winter 
afternoon,  saying  in  each  that  he  u  wished  he  had  a 
slice  of  their  good  cheese,  for  his  wife  expected  com- 
pany." On  his  way  home  his  sleigh,  unfortunately, 
upset,  and  the  gathering  darkness  could  not  conceal 
from  the  eyes  of  the  astonished  townspeople,  who 
ran  to  "right  the  minister,"  the  nine  great  clu 
that  rolled  out  into  the  snow. 

Another  source  of  income  to  New  England  preach- 
ers was  the  sale  of  the  gloves  and  rings  which  were 
given  to  them  (and  indeed  to  all  persons  of  any  im- 
portance) at  weddings,  funerals,  and  christenings.  In 
reading  Judge  SewalPs  diary  one  is  amazed  at  the 
extraordinary  number  of  gloves  he  thus  received,  and 
can  but  wonder  what  became  of  them  all,  since,  had  he 
had  as  many  hands  as  Briareus,  he  could  hardly  have 
worn  them.  The  manuscript  account-book  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Elliot,  who  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  New 
North  Church  of  Boston  in  1742,  shows  that  he,  hav- 
ing a  frugal  mind,  sold  both  gloves  and  rings.  He 
kept  a  full  list  of  the  gloves  he  received,  the  kid 
gloves,  the  lambswool  gloves,  and  the  long  glov« 
which  were  for  his  wife.  It  seems  incredible,  but  in 
thirty-two  years  he  received  two  thousand  and  nine 


THE  MINISTERS'  PAY. 

hundred  and  forty  pairs  of  gloves.  Of  these,  though 
dead  men's  gloves  did  not  have  a  very  good  market, 
he  sold  through  various  salesmen  and  dealers  about 
six  hundred  and  forty  dollars  worth.  One  wonders 
that  he  did  not  "  combine "  with  the  undertaker  or 
sexton  who  furnished  the  gloves  to  mourners,  and 
thus  do  a  very  thrifty  business. 

The  parson,  especially  in  a  low-salaried,  rural  dis- 
trict, had  to  practise  a  thousand  petty  and  great 
economies  to  eke  out  his  income.  He  and  his  fam- 
ily wore  homespun  and  patched  clothing,  which  his 
wife  had  spun  and  wove  and  cut  and  made.  She 
knitted  woollen  mittens  and  stockings  by  the  score. 
She  unfortunately  could  not  make  shoes,  and  to 
keep  the  large  family  shod  was  a  serious  drain  on 
the  clerical  purse,  one  minister  declaring  vehemently 
that  he  should  have  died  a  rich  man  if  he  and  his 
family  could  have  gone  barefoot.  The  pastors  of  sea- 
board and  riverside  parishes  set  nets,  like  the  Apos- 
tles of  old,  and  caught  fish  with  which  they  fed 
their  families  until  the  over-phosphorized  brains  and 
stomachs  rebelled.  They  set  snares  and  traps  and 
caught  birds  and  squirrels  and  hare,  to  replenish 
their  tables,  and  from  the  skins  of  the  rabbits  and 
woodchucks  and  squirrels,  the  parsons'  wives  made 
fur  caps  for  the  husbands  and  for  the  children. 

The  whole  family  gathered  in  large  quantities  from 
roadsides  and  pastures  the  oily  bayberries,  and  from 
them  the  thrifty  and  capable  wii'e  made  scores  of 
candles  for  winter  use,  patiently  filling  and  refilling 

20 


306    THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

her  few  moulds,  or  "dipping"  the  candles  again  and 
again  until  large  enough  to  use.  These  pale-green 
bay  berry  tallow  candles,  when  lighted  in  the  early 
winter  evening,  sent  forth  a  faint  spicy  fragrance  —  a 
true  New  England  incense  —  that  fairly  perfumed  and 
Orientalized  the  atmosphere  of  the  parsonage  kitchen. 
They  were  very  saving,  however,  even  of  these  home- 
made candles,  blowing  them  out  during  the  long  family 
prayers. 

Some  parsons  could  not  afford  always  to  use  can- 
dles. In  the  home  of  one  well-known  minister  the 
wife  always  knitted,  the  children  ciphered  and  stud- 
ied, and  the  husband  wrote  his  sermon  by  the  flicker- 
ing fire-light  (for  they  always  had  wood  in  plenty), 
with  his  scraps  of  sermon  paper  placed  on  the  side  of 
the  great  leathern  bellows  as  it  lay  in  his  lap ;  a 
pretty  home  scene  that  was  more  picturesque  to  be- 
hold than  comfortable  to  take  part  in. 

Country  ministers  could  scarcely  afford  paper  to 
write  on,  as  it  was  taxed  and  was  high  priced.  They 
bought  their  sermon  paper  by  the  pound ;  but  they 
made  the  first  drafts  of  their  addresses,  in  a  line, 
closely  written  hand,  on  wrapping-paper,  on  the  backs 
of  letters,  on  the  margins  of  their  few  newspapers, 
and  copied  them  when  finished  in  their  sermon-books 
with  a  keen  regard  for  economy  of  space  and  paper. 
The  manuscript  sermons  of  New  England  divines  are 
models  of  careful  penmanship,  and  may  be  examined 
with  interest  by  a  student  of  chirography.  The  let- 
ters are  cramped  and  crabbed,  like  the  lives  of  many 


THE  MINISTERS'  PAY.  307 

of  the  writers,  but  the  penmanship  is  methodical, 
clear,  and  distinct,  without  wavering  lines  or  un- 
certain touch. 

As  every  parsonage  had  some  glebe  land,  the  par- 
son could  raise  at  least  a  few  vegetables  to  supply 
his  table.  One  minister,  prevented  by  illness  from 
planting  his  garden,  complained  with  bitterness  that, 
save  for  a  few  rare  gifts  of  vegetables  from  his  par- 
ishioners, his  family  had  no  green  thing  all  summer 
save  "  messes  of  dandelion  greens  "  which  he  had  dug 
by  the  roadside,  and  the  summer's  succession  of  wild 
berries  and  mushrooms.  The  children  had  gathered 
the  berries  and  had  sold  them  when  they  could,  but  of 
course  no  one  would  buy  the  mushrooms,  hence  they 
had  been  forced  to  eat  them  at  the  parsonage ;  and 
he  spoke  despitefully  and  disdainfully  of  the  mean, 
unnourishing,  and  doubtfully  healthful  food. 

In  winter  the  parson's  family  fared  worse ;  one 
minister  declared  that  he  had  had  nothing  but  mush 
and  milk  with  occasional  "  cracker  johnny-cakes  "  all 
winter,  and  that  he  had  not  once  tasted  meat  in  that 
space  of  time,  save  at  a  funeral  or  ordination-supper, 
where  I  doubt  not  he  gorged  with  the  composure  and 
capacity  of  a  Sioux  brave  at  a  war  feast. 

Often  the  low  state  of  the  parsonage  larder  was 
quite  unknown  to  the  unthinking  members  of  the 
congregation,  who  were  not  very  luxuriously  fed 
themselves ;  and  in  the  profession  of  preaching  as 
in  all  other  walks  of  life  much  depended  on  the  way 
the  parson's  money  was  spent,  —  economy  and  good 


308       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

judgment  in  housekeeping  worked  wonders  with  the 
small  salary.  Dr.  D wight,  in  eulogizing  Abijah  Weld, 
pastor  at  Attleborough,  declared  that  on  a  salary  of 
two  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  a  year  Mr.  Weld 
brought  up  eleven  children,  kept  a  hospitable  house, 
and  gave  liberally  in  charity  to  the  poor.  1  fear  if  we 
were  to  ask  some  carnal-minded  person,  who  knew 
not  the  probity  of  Dr.  Dwight,  how  Mr.  Weld  could 
possibly  manage  to  accomplish  such  wonderful  n- 
sults  with  so  little  money,  that  we  should  meet  with 
scepticism  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  facts  all- 
Such  cases  were,  however,  too  common  to  be  doul 
My  answer  to  the  puzzling  financial  question  would  be 
this  :  examine  and  study  the  story  of  the  home  life, 
the  work  of  Mrs.  Weld,  that  unsalaried  helper  in  cleri- 
cal labor;  therein  the  secret  lies. 

In  many  cases,  in  spite  of  the  never  failing  and 
never  ceasing  economy,  care,  and  assistance  of  the 
hard-working,  thrifty  wife,  in  spite  of  tributes,  tithes 
and  windfalls  —  in  country  parishes  especially  —  the 
minister,  unless  he  fortunately  had  some  private 
wealth,  felt  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  follow  some 
money-making  vocation  on  week-days.  Many  were 
farmers  on  week-days.  Many  took  into  their  fami- 
lies young  men  who  wished  to  be  taught,  or  fitted  for 
college.  Rev.  Mr.  Halleck  in  the  course  of  his  use- 
ful and  laborious  life  educated  over  three  hundred 
young  Puritans  in  his  own  household.  It  is  not  re- 
corded how  Mrs.  Halleck  enjoyed  the  never  ending 
cooking  for  this  regiment  of  hungry  young  men. 


THE  MINISTERS'  PAY.  309 

Some  parsons  learned  to  draw  up  wills  and  other 
legal  documents,  and  thus  became  on  a  small  scale 
the  lawyers  of  the  town.  Others  studied  the  mystery 
of  medicine,  and  bought  a  small  stock  of  the  nauseous 
drugs  of  the  times,  which  they  retailed  with  accom- 
panying advice  to  their  parishioners.  Some  were 
coopers,  some  carpenters,  rope-makers,  millers,  or  cob- 
blers. One  cobbler  clergyman  in  Andover,  Vermont, 
worked  at  his  shoe-mending  all  the  week  with  his  Bible 
open  on  his  bench  before  him,  and  he  marked  the  page 
containing  any  text  which  bore  on  the  subject  of  his 
coming  sermon,  with  a  marker  of  waxed  shoe-thread. 
Often  the  Bible,  in  his  pulpit  on  Sunday,  had  thirty 
or  forty  of  these  shoe-thread  guides  hanging  down 
from  it. 

One  minister,  having  been  reproved  for  his  worldli- 
ness  in  amassing  a  large  enough  fortune  to  buy  a 
good  farm,  answered  his  complaining  congregation 
thus :  "  I  have  obtained  the  money  to  buy  this  farm 
by  neglecting  to  follow  the  rnaxim  to  l  mind  my  own 
business.'  My  business  was  to  study  the  word  of  God 
and  attend  to  my  parish  duties  and  preach  good  ser- 
mons. All  this  1  acknowledge  I  have  not  done,  for 
1  have  been  meddling  with  your  business.  That  was 
to  support  me  and  my  family ;  that  you  have  not 
done.  But  remember  this :  while  I  have  performed 
your  duties,  you  have  not  done  mine,  so  I  think  you 
cannot  complain." 

Some  of  the  early  ministers,  in  addition  to  preach- 
ing in  the  meeting-house,  did  not  disdain  to  take 


310       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

care  of  the  edifice.  Parson  Everitt  of  Sandwich  was 
paid  three  dollars  a  year  for  sweeping  out  the 
meeting-house  in  which  he  preached ;  and  after  he 
resigned  this  position  of  profit,  the  duties  were 
performed  by  the  town  physician  "  as  often  as  there 
shalbe  ocation  to  keepe  it  deesent."  The  thrifty  Mr. 
Everitt  had  a  pleasing  variety  of  occupations ;  he 
was  also  a  successful  farmer,  a  good  fence-builder, 
and  he  ran  a  fulling-mill. 

So,  altogether,  as  they  were  wholly  exempt  from 
taxation,  the  New  England  parsons  did  not  fare  ill, 
though  Mr.  Cotton  said  that  "  ministers  and  milk 
were  the  only  cheap  things  in  New  England,"  and  he 
deemed  various  ills,  such  as  attacks  by  fierce  Indians, 
loss  of  cattle,  earthquakes,  and  failure  of  crops,  to  be 
divine  judgments  for  the  small  ministerial  pay  ;  while 
Cotton  Mather,  in  one  of  his  pompous  and  depressing 
jokes,  called  the  minister's  stipend  "  Synecdotical 
Pay."  A  search  in  a  treatise  on  rhetoric  or  in  a 
dictionary  will  discover  the  point  of  this  witticism  — 
if  it  be  worth  searching  for. 


XXII. 

THE   PLAIN-SPEAKING  PUKITAN  PULPIT. 

ONE  thing  which  always  interests  and  can  but 
amuse  every  reader  of  the  old  Puritan  sermons  is 
the  astonishingly  familiar  way  in  which  these  New 
England  divines  publicly  shared  their  domestic  joys 
and  sorrows  with  the  members  of  their  congregations ; 
and  we  are  equally  surprised  at  the  ingenuity  which 
they  displayed  in  finding  texts  that  were  suitable  for 
the  various  occasions  and  events.  The  Reverend  Mr. 
Turell  was  specially  ingenious.  Of  him  Dr.  Holmes 
wrote, — 

"  You  've  heard,  no  doubt,  of  Parson  Turell ; 
Over  at  Medford  he  used  to  dwell,  — 
Married  one  of  the  Mathers'  folks." 

His  wife,  Jane  Coleman,  was  a  handsome  bru- 
nette. The  bridegroom  preached  his  first  sermon 
after  his  wedding  on  this  text,  "  I  am  black  but 
comely,  0  ye  daughters  of  Jerusalem."  When  he 
married  a  second  time  he  chose  as  his  text,  "  He  is 
altogether  lovely,  this  is  my  beloved,  and  this  my 
friend,  0  daughters  of  Jerusalem ! "  It  is  possible 
that  each  of  Parson  TurelPs  brides  may  have  chosen 


312   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

the  text  from  which  he  preached  her  honeymoon  ser- 
mon. It  was  the  universal  custom  for  many  years 
thoughout  New  England  to  allow  a  bride  the  privilege 
of  selecting  for  the  parson  who  had  solemnized  her 
marriage,  or  at  whose  church  she  first  appeared  after 
the  wedding,  the  text  from  which  he  should  preach 
on  the  bridal  Sabbath.  Thus  when  John  Physick  and 
Mary  Prescott  were  married  in  Portland,  on  July  4. 
1770,  the  bride  gave  to  Rev.  Mr.  Deane  this  i 
"  Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part ; "  and  from  it  Par- 
son Deane  preached  the  "  wedding  sermon."  When 
Abby  Smith,  daughter  of  Parson  Smith,  married 
'Squire  John  Adams,  whom  her  father  disliked  and 
would  not  invite  home  to  dinner,  she  chose  this  text 
for  her  wedding  sermon:  "John  came  neither  eating 
bread  nor  drinking  wine,  and  ye  say  he  hath  a  devil." 
The  high-spirited  bride  had  the  honor  of  living  to  be 
the  wife  of  one  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
mother  of  another. 

Another  ingenious  clergyman  gave  out  one  morn- 
ing as  his  text,  "  Unto  us  a  son  is  born  ; "  and  thus 
notified  the  surprised  congregation  of  an  event  which 
they  had  been  awaiting  for  some  weeks.  Another 
preached  on  the  text,  "  My  servant  lieth  at  home 
sick,"  which  was  literally  true.  Another,  a  bachelor, 
dared  to  announce  this  abbreviated  text :  "  A  wonder 
was  seen  in  heaven —  a  woman."  Dr.  Mather  Byles, 
of  Boston,  being  disappointed  through  the  non-appear- 
ance of  a  minister  named  Prince,  who  had  been  ex- 
pected to  deliver  the  sermon,  preached  himself  upon 


THE  PLAIN-SPEAKING  PURITAN  PULPIT.         313 

the  text,  "  Put  not  your  trust  in  princes."  But  Dr. 
Byles  was  one  who  would  always  "  court  a  grin  when 
he  should  win  a  soul." 

One  minister  felt  it  necessary  to  reprove  a  money- 
making  parishioner  who  had  stored  and  was  hold- 
ing in  reserve  (with  the  hope  of  higher  prices)  a 
large  quantity  of  corn  which  was  sadly  needed  for 
consumption  in  the  town.  The  parson  preached  from 
this  appropriate  text,  Proverbs  xi.  26 :  "  He  that 
withholdeth  his  corn,  the  people  shall  curse  him ;  but 
blessings  shall  be  upon  the  head  of  him  that  selleth 
it."  As  the  minister  grew  warmer  in  his  explana- 
tion and  application  of  the  text,  the  money-seeking 
corn-storer  defiantly  and  unregenerately  sat  up  stiff 
and  unmoved,  until  at  last  the  preacher,  provoked  out 
of  prudence  and  patience,  roared  out,  "  Colonel  In- 
graham,  Colonel  Ingraham !  you  know  I  mean  you ; 
why  don't  you  hang  down  your  head  ?  "  In  a  simi- 
lar case  another  stern  parson  employed  the  text, 
"  Ephraim  is  joined  to  his  idols,  let  him  alone ; " 
though  the  personalities  of  the  sermon  made  unne- 
cessary the  open  reference  in  the  text  to  the  offender's 
name. 

The  ministers  were  such  autocrats  in  the  Puritan 
community  that  they  never  hesitated  to  show  their 
authority  in  any  manner  in  the  pulpit.  Judge  Sewall 
records  with  much  bitterness  a  libel  which  his  pas- 
tor, Mr.  Pemberton,  launched  at  him  in  the  meeting 
through  the  medium  of  the  psalm  which  he  gave  out 
to  be  sung.  They  had  differed  over  the  adjustment 


314   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

of  some  church-matter  and  on  the  following  Sunday 
the  clergyman  assigned  to  be  sung  the  libellous  and 
significant  psalm.  Such  lines  as  these  must  have 
been  hard  indeed  for  Judge  Sewall  to  endure :  — 

'•  Speak,  oh  ye  Judges  of  the  Earth 

if  just  your  Sentence  be 
Or  must  not  Innocence  appeal 
to  Heav'n  from  your  decree 

"  Your  Wicked  Hearts  and  Judgments  are 

alike  by  Malice  sway'd 
Your  griping  Hands  by  mighty  Bribes 
to  violence  betrayed. 

"  No  Serpent  of  parch'd  Afric's  breed 

doth  Ranker  poison  bear 
The  drowsy  Adder  will  as  soon 
unlock  his  Sullen  Ear 

"  Unmov'd  by  good  Advice,  and  dead 

As  Adders  they  remain 
From  whom  the  skilful  Charmer's  voice 
can  no  attention  gain." 

Small  wonder  that  Judge  Sewall  writhed  under  the 
infliction  of  these  lines  as  they  were  doubly  thrust 
upon  him  by  the  deacon's  "lining"  and  the  sing- 
ing of  the  congregation ;  and  the  words,  "  The  drowsy 
Adder  will  as  soon  unlock  his  Sullen  Ear  "  seemed 
to  particularly  irritate  him ;  doubtless  he  felt  sure  that 
no  one  could  doubt  his  integrity,  but  feared  that  some 
might  think  him  stupid  and  obstinate. 

Another  arbitrary  clergyman,  having  had  an  alter- 


THE  PLAIN-SPEAKiNG   PURITAN  PULPIT.          315 

cation  with  some  unruly  singers  in  the  choir,  gave 
out  with  much  vehemence  on  the  following  Sunday 
the  hymn  beginning, — 

"  And  are  you  wretches  yet  alive 
And  do  you  yet  rebel  ? " 

with  a  very  significant  glower  towards  the  singers' 
gallery.  In  a  similar  situation  another  minister  gave 
out  to  the  rebellious  choir  the  hymn  commencing,  — 

"  Let  those  refuse  to  sing 

Who  never  knew  our  G-od." 

A  visiting  clergyman,  preaching  in  a  small  and 
shabby  church  built  in  a  parish  of  barren  and  stony 
farm-land,  very  spitefully  and  sneeringly  read  out  to 
be  sung  the  hymn  of  Watts'  beginning,  — 

"  Lord,  what  a  wretched  land  is  this, 
That  yields  us  no  supplies  ! " 

But  his  malicious  intent  was  frustrated  and  the 
tables  were  adroitly  turned  by  the  quick-witted  choir- 
master, who  bawled  out  in  a  loud  voice  as  if  in 
answer,  "  Northfield,"  —  the  name  of  the  minister's 
own  home  and  parish,  —  while  he  was  really  giving 
out  to  the  choir,  as  was  his  wont,  the  name  of  the 
tune  to  which  the  hymn  was  to  be  sung. 

Nor  did  the  parsons  hesitate  to  be  personal  even  in 
their  prayers.  Rev.  Mr.  Moody,  who  was  ordained 
pastor  at  York  in  the  year  1700,  reproved  in  an  ex- 
traordinary manner  a  young  man  who  had  called 
attention  to  some  fine  new  clothing  which  he  wore 


316       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

by  coming  in  during  prayer  time  and  thus  attracting 
the  notice  of  the  congregation.  Mr.  Moody,  in  an 
elevated  tone  of  voice,  at  once  exclaimed,  u  And  0 
Lord  !  we  pray  Thee,  cure  Ned  Ingrahain  of  that 
ungodly  strut,"  etc.  Another  time  he  prayed  for  a 
young  lady  in  the  congregation  and  ended  his  invo- 
cation thus,  "She  asked  me  not  to  pray  for  her  in 
public,  but  I  told  her  I  would,  and  so  I  have,  Amen." 

Rev.  Mr.  Miles,  while  praying  for  rain,  is  said  to 
have  used  this  extraordinary  phraseology  :  "  0  Lord, 
Thou  knowest  we  do  not  want  Thee  to  send  us  a 
rain  which  shall  pour  down  in  fury  and  swell  our 
streams  and  carry  away  our  hay-cocks,  fences,  and 
bridges  ;  but,  Lord,  we  want  it  to  come  drizzle-drozzle, 
drizzle-drozzle,  for  about  a  week,  Amen." 

They  did  not  think  it  necessary  always  to  give  their 
congregations  novel  thoughts  and  ideas  nor  fresh  ser- 
mons. One  minister,  after  being  newly  ordained  in 
his  parish,  preached  the  same  sermon  three  Sundays 
in  succession ;  and  a  deacon  was  sent  to  him  mildly  to 
suggest  a  change.  "  Why,  no,"  he  answered, "  I  can 
see  no  evidence  yet  that  this  one  has  produced  any 
effect." 

Rev.  Mr.  Daggett,  of  Yale  College,  had  an  entire 
system  of  sermons  which  took  him  four  years  to 
preach  throughout.  And  for  three  successive  years 
he  delivered  once  a  year  a  sermon  on  the  text,  "  Is 
Thy  servant  a  dog  that  he  should  do  this  thing?" 
And  the  fourth  year  he  varied  it  with,  "  And  the  dog 
did  it." 


THE  PLAIN-SPEAKING  PURITAN  PULPIT.         317 

Dr.  Coggswell,  of  Canterbury,  Connecticut,  had  a 
sermon  which  he  thrust  upon  his  people  every  spring 
for  many  years  as  being  suitable  to  the  time  when  a 
young  man's  fancy  turns  to  thoughts  of  love.  In  it 
he  soberly  reproved  the  young  church  attendants  for 
gazing  so  much  at  each  other  in  the  meeting.  This 
annual  anti-amatory  advice  never  failed  to  raise  a 
smile  on  the  face  of  each  father  and  son  in  the  con- 
gregation as  he  listened  to  the  familiar  and  oft- 
repeated  words. 

The  Puritan  ministers  gave  advice  in  their  sermons 
upon  most  personal  and  worldly  matters.  Roger 
Williams  instructed  the  women  of  his  parish  to 
wear  veils  when  they  appeared  in  public ;  but  John 
Cotton  preached  to  them  one  Sunday  morning  and 
proved  to  them  that  veils  were  a  sign  of  undue  sub- 
jection to  their  husbands ;  and  in  the  afternoon  the 
fair  Puritans  appeared  with  bare  faces  and  showed 
that  women  had  even  at  that  early  day  "  rights." 

How  the  varieties  of  headgear  did  torment  the  par- 
sons !  They  denounced  from  many  a  pulpit  the  wear- 
ing of  wigs.  Mr.  Noyes  preached  long  and  often 
against  the  fashion.  Eliot,  the  noble  preacher  and 
missionary  to  the  Indians,  found  time  even  in  the 
midst  of  his  arduous  and  incessant  duties  to  deliver 
many  a  blast  against  "prolix  locks,"  —  "with  boiling 
zeal,"  as  Cotton  Mather  said,  —  and  he  labelled  them 
a  "  luxurious  feminine  protexity  ; "  but  lamented  late 
in  life  that  "  the  lust  for  wigs  is  become  insuperable." 
He  thought  the  horrors  in  King  Philip's  War  were  a 


318   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

direct  punishment  from  God  for  wig-wearing.  In- 
crease Mather  preached  warmly  against  wigs,  saying 
that  "  such  Apparel  is  contrary  to  the  light  of  Nature 
and  to  express  Scripture,"  and  that %k  Monstrous  Per- 
riwigs  such  as  some  of  our  church  members  indulge 
in  make  them  resemble  ye  locusts  that  came  out  of 
ye  Bottomless  Pit."  To  learn  how  these  "  Horrid 
Bushes  of  Vanity"  were  despised  by  a  real  live  Puri- 
tan wig-hater  one  needs  only  to  read  the  many  dispar- 
aging, regretful,  and  bitter  references  to  -ring 
and  wig-w<;t  iv!  >  in  Judge  Sewall's  diary,  which  reached 
a  culmination  when  a  widow  whom  he  was  courting 
suggested  most  warmly  that  he  ought  to  wear,  what 
his  very  soul  abominated,  a  periwig. 

Eliot  had  also  a  strong  aversion  to  tobacco,  and  de- 
nounced its  use  in  severe  terms;  but  his  opposition 
in  this  case  was  as  ineffectual  as  it  was  against  v 
Allen  said,  "  In  contempt  of  all  his  admonitions  the 
head  would  be  adorned  with  curls  of  foreign  growth, 
and  the  pipe  would  send  up  volumes  of  smoke." 

Rev.  Mr.  Rogers  preached  against  long  natural  hair, 
—  the  "  disguisement  of  long  ruffianly  hair,"  —  as 
did  also  President  Chauncey.  of  Harvard  College; 
while  Mr.  Wigglesworth's  sermon  on  the  subject  has 
often  been  reprinted,  and  is  full  of  logical  arguments. 
This  offence  was  named  on  the  list  of  existing  evils 
which  was  made  by  the  General  Court :  that  "  the  men 
wore  long  hair  like  women's  hair,"  while  the  women 
were  complained  of  for  "cutting  and  curling  and  lav- 
ing out  of  hair,  especially  among  the  younger  sort." 


THE  PLAIN-SPEAKING  PURITAN  PULPIT.        31 9 

Still,  the  Puritan  magistrates,  omnipotent  as  they 
were,  did  not  dare  to  force  the  be-curled  citizens  to 
cut  their  long  love-locks,  though  they  instructed  and 
bribed  them  to  do  so.  A  Salein  man  was,  in  1687, 
fined  ten  shillings  for  a  misdemeanor,  but  "  in  case 
he  shall  cutt  off  his  long  har  of  his  head  into  a  sevill 
(civil  ?)  frame  in  the  mean  time  shall  have  abated  five 
shillings  of  his  fine."  John  Eliot  hated  long  natural 
hair  as  well  as  false  hair.  Cotton  Mather  said  of  him, 
in  a  very  unpleasant  figure  of  speech,  "  The  hair  of 
them  that  professed  religion  grew  too  long  for  him  to 
swallow."  Other  fashions  and  habits  brought  forth 
denunciations  from  the  pulpit,  —  hooped  petticoats, 
gold-laced  coats  (unless  worn  by  gentlemen),  pointed 
shoes,  chaise-owning,  health-drinking,  tavern-visiting, 
gossiping,  meddling,  tale-bearing,  and  lying. 

Political  and  business  and  even  medical  and  sani- 
tary subjects  were  popular  in  the  early  New  England 
pulpit.  Mr.  Peters  preached  many  a  long  sermon  to 
urge  the  formation  of  a  stock  company  for  fishing, 
and  canvassed  all  through  the  commonwealth  for  the 
same  purpose.  Cotton  Mather  said  plainly  that  min- 
isters ought  to  instruct  themselves  and  their  congre- 
gations in  politics  ;  and  in  Connecticut  it  was  ordered 
by  law  that  each  minister  should  give  sound  and 
orthodox  advice  to  his  congregation  at  the  time  of 
civil  elections. 

Every  natural  phenomenon,  every  unusual  event 
called  forth  a  sermon,  and  the  minister  could  find  even 
in  the  common  events  of  every-day  life  plain  manifes- 


320   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

tations  of  Divine  wrath  and  judgment.  He  preached 
with  solemn  delight  upon  comets,  and  earthquakes, 
and  northern  lights,  and  great  storms  and  droughts, 
on  deaths  and  diseases,  and  wonders  and  scandals  (for 
there  were  scandals  even  in  puritanical  New  England), 
on  wars  both  at  home  and  abroad,  on  shipwrecks,  on 
safe  voyages,  on  distinguished  visitors,  on  noted  crim- 
inals and  crimes,  —  in  fact,  upon  every  subject  that 
was  of  spiritual  or  temporal  interest  to  his  congrega- 
tion or  himself.  And  his  people  looked  for  his 
religious  comment  upon  passing  events  just  as  now- 
a-days  we  read  articles  upon  like  subjects  "in  the 
newspaper.  Thus  was  the  Puritan  minister  not  only 
a  preacher,  but  a  teacher,  adviser,  and  friend,  and  a 
pretty  plain-spoken  one  too. 


XXIII. 
THE  EARLY   CONGREGATIONS. 

ON  Sunday  morning  in  New  England  in  the  olden 
time,  the  country  church-members  whose  homes  were 
near  the  meeting-house  walked  reverently  and  slowly 
across  the  green  meadows  or  the  snowy  fields  to 
meeting.  Townspeople,  at  the  sound  of  the  bell  or 
drum  or  horn,  walked  decorously  and  soberly  along 
the  irregular  streets  to  the  house  of  God.  Farmers 
who  lived  at  a  greater  distance  were  up  betimes  to 
leave  their  homes  and  ride  across  the  fields  and 
through  the  narrow  bridle-paths,  which  were  then  the 
universal  and  almost  the  only  country  roads.  These 
staid  Puritan  planters  were  mounted  on  sturdy  farm- 
horses,  and  a  pillion  was  strapped  on  behind  each  sad- 
dle, and  on  it  was  seated  wife,  daughter,  or  perhaps  a 
young  child.  I  should  like  to  have  seen  the  church- 
going  dames  perched  up  proudly  in  all  their  Sunday 
finery,  masked  in  black  velvet,  a  sober  Puritan  travesty 
of  a  gay  carnival  fashion.  Riding-habits  were  hardly 
known  until  a  century  ago,  and  even  after  their  intro- 
duction were  never  worn  a-pillion-riding,  so  the  Puri- 
tan women  rode  in  their  best  attire.  Sometimes,  in 
unusually  muddy  or  dusty  weather,  a  very  daintily 

21 


322       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW   ENGLAND. 

dressed  "nugiperous"  dame  would  don  a  linen  "weath- 
er skirt "  to  protect  her  fine  silken  petticoats. 

The  wealthier  Puritans  were  mounted  on  fine 
pacing  horses,  "once  so  highly  prized,  now  so  odious 
deemed ;"  for  trotting  horses  were  not  in  much  demand 
or  repute  in  America  until  after  the  Revolutionary 
War.  There  were,  until  that  date,  professional  horse- 
trainers,  whose  duties  were  to  teach  horses  to  pace ; 
though  by  far  the  best  saddle-horses  were  the  natural- 
galted  "  Narragansett  Pacers,"  the  first  distinctively 
American  race  of  horses.  These  remarkably  easy- 
paced  animals  were  in  such  demand  in  the  West 
Indies  for  the  use  of  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the 
wealthy  sugar-planters,  and  in  Philadelphia  and  New 
York  for  rich  Dutch  and  Quaker  colonists,  that  com- 
paratively few  of  them  were  allowed  to  remain  in  New 
England,  and  they  were,  indeed  too  high-priced  for 
poor  New  England  colonists.  The  natural  and  singu- 
lar pace  of  these  Narragansett  horses,  which  did  not 
incline  the  rider  from  side  to  side,  nor  jolt  him  up  and 
down,  and  their  remarkable  sureness  of  foot  and  their 
great  endurance,  rendered  them  of  much  value  in 
those  days  of  travel  in  the  saddle.  They  were  also 
phenomenally  broad-backed,  —  shaped  by  nature  for 
saddle  and  pillion. 

When  trotting-horses  became  fashionable,  the  train- 
ers placed  logs  of  wood  at  regular  intervals  across  the 
road,  and  by  exercising  the  animals  over  this  ob- 
structed path  forced  them  to  raise  their  feet  at  the 
proper  intervals,  and  thus  learn  to  trot. 


THE  EARLY  CONGREGATIONS.  323 

Long  distances  did  many  of  the  pre-revolutionary 
farmers  of  New  England  have  to  ride  to  reach  their 
churches,  and  long  indeed  must  have  been  the  time 
occupied  in  these  Sunday  trips,  for  a  horse  was  too 
well-burdened  with  saddle  and  pillion  and  two  riders 
to  travel  fast.  The  worshippers  must  often  have 
started  at  daybreak.  When  we  see  now  an  ancient 
pillion  —  a  relic  of  olden  times  —  brought  out  in  jest 
or  curiosity,  and  strapped  behind  a  saddle  on  a  horse's 
back,  and  when  we  see  the  poor  steed  mounted  by 
two  riders,  it  seems  impossible  for  the  over-burdened 
animal  to  endure  a  long  journey,  and  certainly  im- 
possible for  him  to  make  a  rapid  one. 

Horse-flesh,  and  human  endurance  also,  was  econo- 
mized in  early  days  by  what  was  called  the  "  ride  and 
tie "  system.  A  man  and  his  wife  would  mount 
saddle  and  pillion,  ride  a  couple  of  miles,  dismount, 
tie  the  steed,  and  walk  on.  A  second  couple,  who  had 
walked  the  first  two  miles,  soon  mounted  the  rested 
horse,  rode  on  past  the  riders  for  two  or  three  miles, 
dismounted,  and  tied  the  animal  again.  In  that  way 
four  persons  could  ride  very  comfortably  and  sociably 
half-way  to  meeting,  though  they  must  have  had  to 
make  an  early  start  to  allow  for  the  slow  gait  and 
long  halts.  At  the  church  the  disburdened  horses 
were  tied  during  the  long  services  to  palings  and  to 
trees  near  the  meeting-house  (except  the  favored 
animals  that  found  shelter  in  the  noon-houses)  and 
the  scene  must  have  resembled  the  outskirts  of  a 
gypsy  camp  or  an  English  horse-fair.  Such  obedience 


324       THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

did  the  Puritans  pay  to  the  letter  of  the  law  that 
when  the  Newbury  people  were  forbidden,  in  tying 
their  horses  outside  the  church  paling,  to  leave  them 
near  enough  to  the  footpath  to  be  in  the  way  of  church 
pedestrians,  it  did  not  prevent  the  stupid  or  obstinate 
Newburyites  from  painstakingly  bringing  their  steeds 
within  the  gates  and  tying  them  to  the  gate-posts 
where  they  were  much  more  seriously  and  annoyingly 
in  the  way. 

It  is  usual  to  describe  and  to  think  of  the  Puri- 
tan congregations  as  like  assemblies  of  Quakers,  sol- 
emn, staid,  and  uniform  and  dull  of  dress ;  but  I 
can  discover  in  historical  records  nothing  to  indicate 
simplicity,  soberness,  Or  even  uniformity  of  apparel, 
except  the  uniformity  of  fashion,  which  was  powerful 
then  as  now.  The  forbidding  rules  and  regulations 
relating  to  the  varied  and  elaborate  forms  of  women's 
dress  —  and  of  men's  attire  as  well  —  would  never 
have  been  issued  unless  such  prohibited  apparel  had 
been  common  and  universally  longed-for,  and  unless 
much  diversity  and  elegance  of  dress  had  abounded. 

Indeed  the  daughters  of  the  Pilgrims  were  true 
"daughters  of  Zion,  walking  with  stretched  forth 
necks  and  wanton  eyes,  and  mincing  as  they  go." 
Save  for  the  "  nose  jewels,"  the  complaining  and  ex- 
haustive list  of  the  prophet  Isaiah  might  serve  as 
well  for  New  England  as  for  Judah  and  Jerusalem : 
"  their  cauls  and  their  round  tires  like  moons  ;  the 
chains  and  the  bracelets  and  the  mufflers  ;  the  bon- 
nets, and  the  ornaments  of  the  legs,  and  the  head 


THE  EARLY  CONGREGATIONS.  325 

bands,  and  the  tablets,  and  the  ear-rings;  the  rings 
and  nose  jewels ;  the  changeable  suits  of  apparel,  and 
the  mantles,  and  the  wimples,  and  the  crisping  pins  ; 
the  glasses,  and  the  fine  linen,  and  the  hoods  and 
the  veils."  Nor  has  the  day  yet  come  to  pass  in  the 
nineteenth  century  when  the  bravery  of  the  daughters 
has  been  taken  away. 

Pleasant  it  is  to  think  of  the  church  appearance  of 
the  Puritan  goodmen  and  goodwives.  Priscilla  Alden 
in  a  Quakeress'  drab  gown  would  doubtless  have  been 
pleasant  to  behold,  but  Priscilla  garbed  in  a  "  blew 
Mohere  peticote,"  a  "  tabby  bodeys  with  red  livery 
cote,"  and  an  "  immoderate  great  rayle  "  with  "  Slash- 
es," with  a  laced  neckcloth  or  cross  cloth  around  her 
fair  neck,  and  a  scarlet  "  whittle  "  over  all  this  motley 
finery  ;  with  a  "  outwork  quoyf  or  ciffer  "  (New  Eng- 
land French  for  coiffure)  with  "  long  wings  "  at  the 
side,  and  a  silk  or  tiffany  hood  on  her  drooping 
head,  —  Priscilla  in  this  attire  were  pretty  indeed. 

Nor  did  sober  John  Alden  and  doughty  Miles 
Standish  lack  for  variety  in  their  dress  ;  besides  their 
soldier's  garb,  their  sentinel's  armor,  they  had  a  vast 
variety  of  other  attire  to  choose  from;  they  could 
select  their  head-wear  from  "  redd  knitt  capps "  or 
"  monmouth  capps "  or  "  black  hats  lyned  at  the 
browes  with  leather."  They  could  have  a  "  sute " 
of  "dublett  and  hose  of  leather  lyned  with  oyled- 
skin-leather,"  fastened  with  hooks  and  eyes  instead 
of  buttons ;  or  one  of  "  hampshire  kerseys  lyned." 
They  could  have  "  mandillions  "  (whatever  they  may 


326   THE  SABBATH  IN  PURITAN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

have  been)  "  lyned  with  cotton,"  and  "  wast-coats  of 
greene  cotton  bound  about  with  red  tape,"  and 
breeches  of  oiled  leather  and  leathern  drawers  (I  do 
not  know  whether  these  leathern  drawers  were  under- 
garments or  leathern  draw-strings  at  the  knees  of 
the  breeches).  They  could  wear  "gloves  of  sheeps 
or  calfs  leather"  or  of  kid,  and  fine  gold  belts, 
and  "points"  at  the  knees.  In  fact,  the  invoices  of 
goods  to  the  earliest  settlers  show  that  they  had  a 
choice  of  various  materials  for  garments,  includ- 
ing "  gilford  and  gedleyman,  holland  and  lockerum 
and  buckerum,  fustian,  canvass,  linsey-woolsey,  red 
ppetuna,  cursey,  cambrick,  calico-stuff,  loom-work, 
Dutch  serges,  and  English  jeans"  —enough  for  diver- 
sity, surely.  Sad-colored  mantles  the  goodmen  wore, 
but  their  doublets  Were  scarlet,  and  with  their  green 
waistcoats  and  red  caps,  surely  the  Puritan  men  were 
sufficiently  gayly  dressed  to  suit  any  fancy  save  that 
of  a  cavalier.  Later  in  the  history  of  the  colony, 
when  hooped  petticoats  and  laced  hoods  and  mantles, 
and  long,  embroidered  gloves  fastened  with  horsehair 
"glove  tightens,"  and  when  velvet  coats  and  satin 
breeches  and  embroidered  waistcoats,  gold  lace,  spark- 
ling buckles,  and  cocked  hats  with  full  bottomed  wigs 
were  worn,  the  gray,  sombre  old  meeting-house  blos- 
somed like  a  tropical  forest,  and  vied  with  the  worldly 
Church  of  England  in  gay-garbed  church  attendants. 

Stern  and  severe  of  face  were  many  of  the  members 
of  these  early  New  England  congregations,  else  they 
had  not  been  true  Puritans  in  heart,  and  above  all, 


THE   EARLY  CONGREGATIONS.  327 

they  had  not  been  Pilgrims.  Long  and  thin  of  feature 
were  they,  rarely  smiling,  yet  not  devoid  of  humor. 
Some  handsome  countenances  were  seen,  —  austere, 
bigoted  Cotton  Mather  being,  strangely  enough,  the 
handsomest  and  most  worldly  looking  of  them  all. 
What  those  brave,  stern  men  and  women  were,  as 
well  as  what  they  looked,  is  known  to  us  all,  and  can- 
not be  dwelt  upon  here,  any  more  than  can  here  be 
shown  and  explained  the  details  of  their  religious 
faith  and  creed.  Patient,  frugal,  God-fearing,  and 
industrious,  cruel  and  intolerant  sometimes,  but 
never  cowardly,  sternly  obeying  the  word  of  God  in 
the  spirit  and  the  letter,  but  erring  sometimes  in  the 
interpretation  thereof,  —  surely  they  had  no  traits  to 
shame  us,  to  keep  us  from  thrilling  with  pride  at  the 
drop  of  their  blood  which  runs  in  our  backsliding 
veins.  Nothing  can  more  plainly  show  their  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics,  nothing  is  so  fully  typical 
of  the  motive,  the  spirit  of  their  lives,  as  their  rever- 
ent observance  of  the  Lord's  day. 


INDEX. 


AINSWORTH,  Henry,  author  of  the 
"Version,"  129;  a  peacemaker,  130; 
poisoned,  132;  his  version  of  the 
nineteenth  psalm,  133. 

"Ainsworth's  Version,"  125  et  seq.; 
described,  126 ;  strange  compounds 
in,  128;  annotations  in,  134;  diffi 
culty  in  singing  the  tunes  in,  139; 
date  of  the  successive  editions,  141 ; 
where  to  be  found,  141  et  seq. 

Allen,  "Father,"  his  protest  against 
modern  church  music,  229. 

"  American  Museum,"  the  satirical 
poem  in,  on  the  Connecticut  Sab- 
bath, 256. 

Andros,  Governor,  fifty-second  psalm 
sung  in  the  hearing  of,  182. 

Architecture,  type  of  early  American 
church,  3. 

41  Arminian"  cider,  287. 


BACHELORS  destroy  the  pew  of  the 
Newbury  young  women,  52. 

Bacon,  Dr.  Leonard,  free  drinks  fur- 
nished at  the  ordination  of,  271. 

Baptists  proclaim  their  tenets  in  Pur- 
itan meeting,  230. 

Barnard,  Rev.  John,  his  Version  of 
the  Psalms,  200. 

Basset,  Robert,  fined  for  reprehensi- 
ble conduct,  28. 

Bass-viols  first  used  in  churches, 
225. 


"Bay  Psalm-Book,"  the,  first  book 
printed  in  New  England,  144;  de- 
scribed, 144  et  seq. ;  the  authors, 
145,  149 ;  typography  and  construc- 
tion of,  146 ;  its  production  de- 
scribed by  Cotton  Mather,  147 ;  a 
unique  specimen  of  poetical  tinker- 
ing, 154;  used  also  in  Scotland^ 
155;  its  abandonment,  158;  copy 
owned  by  the  American  Antiqua- 
rian Society,  158 ;  other  copies,  159; 
Reprint  of,  by  Dr.  Shurtleff,  159; 
sale  of  his  copy,  160 ;  in  the  Lenox 
Library,  161;  later  editions,  165; 
inscriptions  in,  166;  directions  in, 
regarding  singing,  202 ;  irregularity 
of  metres  in,  203. 

Bay  berry  candles,  306. 

Beecher,  H.  W.,  describes  the  oppo- 
sition to  stoves  in  church,  98. 

Bell  rope,  hung  in  front  of  pulpit,  31. 

Bernon  Gabriel,  his  pocket  psalm- 
book,  189. 

Billings,  Mr.,  "Fuguing  Psalm 
Singer"  of,  219;  his  "  Psalm  Sing- 
er's Amusement,"  219. 

"Blue  Laws"  of  Vermont,  248; 
"False,"  of  Connecticut,  245;  of 
New  Haven,  248. 

Boardman,  Parson,  outprays  the  In- 
dian medicine  man,  82. 

Bonnets,  women's,  in  meeting,  71. 

Boy,  incident  of  a,  walking  the  foot 
bench  in  church,  35. 


330 


INDEX. 


Boys,  Puritan,  put  in  the  gallery  and 

stairs  of  the    meeting-house,    55; 

pews  of,  in  Windsor,  61. 
Bridal  finery,  custom  of  displaying  in 

meeting,  233. 
Bride's  privilege  of  choosing  the  text, 

312. 
Byles,  Dr.  Mathei,  on  fuguing,  220. 

CAGE  or  frame  for  Puritan  babies  in 
early  meeting-houses,  54. 

Calvin  adopts  Marot's  Psalms,  193. 

"  Capitall  Letters"  inscribed  on  crim- 
inals, <i4. 

Charles  L,  incident  of  his  flight 
from  Oxford,  182. 

Chauncey,  Parson,  of  Durham,  his 
patience  with  the  young,  59. 

Children, diversiops  of,  in  meeting,17. 

Church,  the  word  distasteful  to  the 
Puritans,  1;  number  of  members 
necessary  to  establish  a,  2. 

Church-raising,  7. 

Cider  in  the  noon-house,  111 ;  money 
value  of,  111. 

Cold  in  meeting,  suffering  from,  87 
et  seq. 

Communion-checks,  120. 

Conch-shell  used  to  summon  to  public 
worship,  26. 

Concord.armed  men  at  meeting  in,  24. 

Contribution,  church,  117;  of  leaden 
bullets,  117;  for  the  Continental 
army,  118. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  his  account  of  the 
use  of  Ainsworth's  Version  in  the 
Salem  Church,  139;  his  tract  on 
church-singing,  207;  Saturday 
evening  services  of,  253 ;  his  Sab- 
bath observances,  254. 

"  Counter"  singing,  222. 

DAYE,  Steeven,    printer  of  the  Bay 

Psalm  Book,  146. 
Deacon,  the  office  of,  113  et  seq.; seat 

of  in  meeti  n  g,l  13 ;  d  istributes  checks 


to  church -members,  120;  minor  du- 
ties of,  123. 

"Deaconing"  the  psalm,  213;  oppo- 
nents of  the  custom,  216. 

"Deaf  pew,"  the,  63. 

Dedhain,  first  meetiug-house  in,  3. 

Dedication  dinner  at  Lynn,  account 
of,  276. 

"  Dignify  the  meeting,"  to,  49. 

Dogs  used  as  foot-stoves  in  meet- 
ing, 95;  a  fine  for  bringing,  into 
meeting,  242. 

Dress  and  appearance  of  the  Puritans, 
374  et  seq. 

Drum  used  to  summon  to  public  wor- 
ship, 27. 

Dunster,  President,  his  improvement 
of  the  Psalms,  152. 


EDWARDS,  Jonathan,  and  the  bell- 
rope,  31 ;  deplores  Sabbath  evening 
dissipations,  257. 

Eliot,  John,  anecdote  of,  5;  co-author 
of  the  Bay  Psalm-Book,  145;  his 
denunciation  of  wigs  and  tobacco, 
317,  318. 

Endicott,  Governor,  instructions  of, 
as  to  the  observance  of  Saturday 
evening,  253. 

Excommunicated  Puritan,  an,  brings 
his  own  communion  to  the  church, 
119. 

Excommunicated  offenders,  264. 

"Expounding"  tedious,  81. 


"FALSE  Blue  Laws  "  of  Connecticut, 
24*. 

Fennel,  traditions  of  its  use  in  meet- 
ing, 42. 

Firearms  taken  to  meeting,  19. 

Fire,  alarm  of,  during  divine  service, 
243. 

Flag  used  to  summon  to  public  wor- 
ship, 30. 

"  Flip,"  how  made,  111. 


INDEX. 


331 


Foot-stoves  in  meeting,  93 ;  prohibited 
in  Roxbury  and  Hardwicke,  94; 
dogs  used  as,  95. 

"Foreseat,  the,"  47. 

Fuguing,  Billings',  219. 


GIRL,  little,  incident  of  a,  eating  cara- 
way and  southernwood,  40. 

Girls  fined  for  misconduct  in  meeting, 
57. 

Gloves  and  rings  given  to  the  minis- 
ters, 304. 

"Gospeller,  A  Wanton,"  inscription 
over  the  heads  of  offenders,  230. 

Guns,  firing  of,  as  a  summons  to  pub- 
lic worship,  28. 


"  HANDKERCHIEF  Moody,"  285. 

Hardwicke,  a  citizen  of,  commits  sui- 
cide when  debarred  from  the  dea- 
con's seat,  52. 

Haverhill  meeting-house,  3. 

Hawthorne's  story,  "The  Black  Veil," 
285. 

Headgear  of  Puritan  Women,  91. 

Higginson,  Colonel,  his  picture  of  the 
Puritan  minister,  281,  283. 

Hingham,  early  church  at,  3. 

Horn  used  to  summon  to  public  wor- 
ship, 26. 

Horse-shed,  first,  107. 

Huguenots  in  America,  189. 


INDIAN  medicine  man  beaten  at  his 
own  game  by  Parson  Boardman, 
82. 

Indian's  application  of  the  story  of 
the  temptation  in  Eden,  288. 


JOHNSON,  Madam,  unseemly  dress  of, 

130. 
Judson,  Parson,  of  Taunton,  a  lazy 

minister,  282. 


KEMBLE,  Captain,  set  in  the  stocks 
for  kissing  his  wife  publicly  on  the 
Sabbath,  247. 


LENOX,  Mr,  James,  his  copy  of  the 
"  Bay  Psalm  Book,"  how  obtained, 
162.  " 

"  Liberty  tea,"  301. 

"Lining"  the  psalm,  213;  contest 
over  the  abolition  of,  214. 

Liquor  at  church-raisings,  8. 

Liquor  bills  at  ordination  of  ministers, 
271  et  seq. 

Litchfield,  incident  at  the  first  appear- 
ance of  a  stove  in  meeting  in,  99. 

Londonderry  settlers,  communion 
customs  of,  121  et  seq. 

Longfellow  quoted,  42. 

Longfellow's  "Courtship  of  Miles 
Standish"  quoted,  125. 

Lying,  how  punished,  264. 

Lynn,  dedication  dinner  at,  graphic 
account  of,  276  et  seq. 


MAIDS'  pews,  53. 

Marot,  Clement,  189;  presents  his 
psalm-songs  to  Charles  V.,  191 ;  flees 
to  Geneva,  192. 

Marot  and  Beza's  French  Psalm-Book, 
188 ;  adopted  by  Calvin,  193;  exam- 
ples from,  194. 

"Marotique"  poetry,  189. 

Marriage  service  not  performed  by 
the  ministers  in  Puritan  New  Eng- 
land, 266. 

Mather,  Cotton,  objects  to  the  word 
"church,"  1;  long  praj'ersand  ser- 
mons of,  79;  describes  the  produc- 
tion of  the  "Bay  Psalm-Book,"  147; 
Version  of  the  Psalms  by,  199 ;  on 
musical  instruments  in  meeting, 
223 ;  his  adventure  with  an  "  Ingen- 
ious Child,"  290. 

Mather,  Richard,  co-author  of  the 
"  Bav  Psalm-Book,"  145,  149. 


332 


INDEX. 


Meeting-house,  the  name,  1;  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  1 ;  character  of  the 
first,  2;  secularization  of  the  first, 
3;  architecture  of,  3;  location  of,  on 
hill-top,  5;  details  of,  7;  windows 
of,  9;  bills  posted  on,  12;  used  as  a 
storehouse,  13;  painted  in  bright 
colors,  15 ;  diversions  of  the  children 
in,  17;  disturbances  in,  21 ;  "seat- 
ing the,"  45;  to  "dignify  "  the, 49 
icy  cold  in  winter,  85  et  seq. 
first  stove  used  in,  96  ;  service 
in  interrupted  by  Quakers  and 
others,  230;  bridal  finery  pub- 
licly displayed  in,  233;  public 
confession  and  repentance  in 
234. 

Ministers,  severe  punishments  for 
speaking  against,  259 ;  early  Puri- 
tan, could  not  perform  the  marriage 
service,  266;  condemned  f»r  trivial 
offences,  267 ;  ordination  of,  269  et 
seq.:  characteristics  of,  281  et 
seq.;  curious  epithets  applied  to, 
283;  their  gloomy  and  despairing 
views  of  life,  285;  their  drinking 
habits,  286 ;  impostors  among  them, 
289;  their  pay.  292  et  seq.;  their 
perquisites,  296, 300;  "  settlements" 
to,  297 ;  all,  good  Whigs,  298;  their 
hard  times  after  the  war  began,  298 ; 
"  spinning  bees  "  for  their  benefit, 
300;  work,  provisions,  wood,  &c., 
furnished,  302;  other  sources  of  in- 
come, 304,  307 ;  obliged  to  practise 
other  professions  to  eke  out  their 
salaries,  308;  strange  prayers  of, 
316;  personalities  of,  in  the  pulpit, 
311  et  seq. ;  required  to  preach  on 
civil  affairs,  319. 

Minister's  house,  building  of,  296. 
Moody,  Mr.,  of  York,  Maine.device  of. 
to  waken  sleepers,  71 ;  reproves  a 
young  man  in  his  prayer,  315. 
"  Morse,  Cicely,  Her  Book,"  169. 
Morse,    Rev.  Jedediah,   a  Sabbath- 
school  established  by,  108. 


Muffs  worn  by  men,  89. 

Musical  instruments  in  meeting,  first 

use  of,  225  etseq.;  opposition  to, 

226. 


"  NARRAGANSETT  pacers,"  the,  322. 

Negroes,  seats  for,  in  meeting,  62. 

New  Haven  "  Blue  Laws,"  248. 

Noon-house,  the,  102  et  seq. ;  restric- 
tions on  the  location  of,  105 ;  fre- 
quent in  Connecticut,  106;  boys 
forced  to  hear  the  Bible  read  in,  107  ; 
social  meeting  in  the,  109. 

Nooning  the,  on  Sundays,  how  spent, 
104. 


OLD  South  Church,  Boston,  4;  copies 
of  "  Bay  Psalm-Book  "  owned  by, 
139. 

Ordination  of  ministers  a  great  event, 
269  et  seq.;  liquor  drunk  at,  271; 
condemnation  of  ordination  revel- 
ries, 273 ;  account  of  food  eaten  at, 
274;  disturbance  at,  279. 

Ordination-ball,  the,  269. 

"Organs,  a  pair  of,"  sent  to  Boston, 


PARLEY,  Peter,"  anecdote  of,  about 
church  stove,  98. 

Patrick's  Version,  197;  verses  from, 
198. 

Pepperell,  Lady,  cushions  her  pew, 
43. 

Peters,  Rev.  Samuel, and  the  "False 
Blue  Laws  "  of  Connecticut,  245. 

Pews  in  the  early  meeting-houses,  33; 
family  and  individual,  34;  fittings 
of,  35;  seats,  37;  balustrades,  39; 
cushioned,  43  ;  swing-shelves  of,  43; 
square,  for  the  minister,  48;  called 
by  Dr.  Porter  the  Devil's  play- 
houses, 60. 


INDEX. 


333 


Pew  built  in  the  gallery  by  young 
women  of  Newbury,  52. 

Pewter  communion  service,  115. 

Pilgrim  Fathers,  their  first  meeting- 
place  a  fort,  1. 

Pillories,  12. 

Pitch-pipes  for  the  singers,  222,  224. 

Pittsfield,  pews  sold  by  "  vandoo  "  in, 
50. 

Powder  stored  in  the  meeting-houses, 
13. 

Prayers  of  the  early  clergy,  length 
of.  79  et  seq.;  attitude  during,  80. 

Presbyterian  checks,  121;  in  Phila- 
delphia, 123. 

Prince,  Rev.  Thomas,  publishes  a  re- 
vised edition  of  the  "  Bay  Psalm- 
Book,"  155;  his  library  bequeathed 
to  the  Old  South  Church,  160. 

"Psalterium  Americanum"  of  Cotton 
Mather,  199. 

Puffer,  Deacon,  his  fall  into  the  aisle, 
44. 

Public  religious  worship,  means  to 
announce,  26  et  seq. 

Pulpits,  architecture  of,  16. 

Puritans  in  Holland,  their  quarrels, 
130. 


QUAKERS,  meetings  interrupted  by 
their  scandalous  outbreaks,  230  et 
seq. 

Quakers  punished  for  non-attendance 
at  meeting,  251. 

Quarles,  Francis,  a  reputed  contribu- 
tor to  the  "Bay  Psalm-Book," 
150. 

Quincy,  scuffle  between  a  boy  and  a 
deacon  in  church  in,  62. 


READING  service  at  the  nooning  hour, 
107. 

"  Ride  and  tie  "  sj'stem,  the,  323. 

Robinson,  Parson, of  Duxbury,  "Mas- 
ter Jack,"  281. 


"  S ABBA-DAY  house,"  103. 

Sabbath  breaking,  74 ;  Puritan  ideas 
of  and  penalties  for,  246  et  seq. ;  by 
various  degrees  of,  247  et  seq. 

Sabbath  observance,  laws  and  cus- 
toms concerning,  245  et  seq. 

Sabbath-schools,  the  first,  108. 

Sabbath  services,  summons  to,  26; 
fines  for  non-attendance  on,  250  et 
seq. 

Sacramental  expenses,  how  defrayed, 
114;  service,  115. 

Salem  church,  lines  written  on  a  panel 
in,  221. 

Salem  sentinels,  armor  of,  22. 

Saturday  evening  included  in  the 
Sabbath,  253;  Biblical  authority 
for,  256. 

Scripture'  Songs  from  the  "Bay 
Psalm-Book,"  150. 

Seats  in  meeting,  45 ;  men  and  women 
assigned  to  different,  47;  for  the 
young  men  and  women,  52;  for  the 
boys,  55, 61;  the  stool  of  repentance, 
64. 

"Seating"  the  meeting,  45;  dissatis- 
faction caused  by,  48;  how  man- 
aged in  Rowley,  50. 

Sermons,  lengthy,  instances  of,  78  et 
seq. 

Sewall,  Rev.  Dr.,  ordination  revelries 
at  the  house  of,  273  et  seq. 

Sewall,  Judge,  quoted,  48,  85,  86, 
113;  unwilling  to  meddle  with 
"seating"  the  meeting,  49 ;  his 
wife  invited  to  sit  in  the  "fore- 
seat,"  51;  his  long  expounding,  81; 
books  presented  by  him  to  his  lady- 
love, 156;  describes  the  interrup- 
tions of  a  Quakeress  in  meeting, 
230;  makes  public  acknowledgment 
of  his  error  in  the  Salem  witchcraft 
delusion,  241;  attacked  by  his  pas- 
tor in  the  psalm  given  to  be  sung, 
313 ;  his  criticism  of  his  own  musi- 
cal abilities,  203,  204;  unable  as 
precentor  to  keep  the  people  to  one 


334 


INDEX. 


tune,   205;   his  passion  for  music, 

206. 
Shurtleff,  Dr.,  his  copy  of  the  "  Bay 

Psalm-Book,"  160. 
Singers'  seats  in  meeting,  63,  212. 
Singing,  church,    in  Puritan    times 

atrocious,  203,  205;  tunes  in  use  in, 

206;  conte=t  over,   208;   by  rule, 

209. 
Singing-schools    first  established  in 

New  England,  212. 
Sleepers    in    meeting  awakened   by 

tithingman,   66  ;  anecdotes  of,  67 

et  seq. 

Sounding-board,  16. 
Speaking  disrespectfully  of  ministers 

and    churches    severely  punished, 

259  et  seq. 
"  Spinning  bees  "  for  the  minister's 

benefit,  300. 
Sternhold  and  Hopkins'  Psalms,  136, 

141  ;    used  somewhat  extensively, 

172;  the  first  complete  version,  173; 

account  of  their  composition,  173 

et  seq.;    numerous  editions,   176; 

diverse  opinions  as  to,  176;  Wes- 
ley's   estimation   of,    177  ;    music 

for,  178;  alterations  in  the  Genevan 

version  of,   179 ;  specimens   from, 

179  et  seq.;  antique  character  of, 

187. 
Stevens,   Henry,   his  account  of  the 

"Bay  Psalm-Book"  obtained  for 

Mr.  Lenox,  162. 
Stipends,  the,  of  the  early  Puritan 

ministers,  292  et  seq. ;  backwardness 

in  paying,   294 ;   protests    against 

paying,  295. 
Stocks,  pillory,&c.,  on  meeting-house 

green,  12. 
Stoves,  first,  in  meeting,  96 ;  character 

of,  97;  objections  to,  97;   violent 

opposition  to,  99. 

Strong,  Rev.  Nathan,  a  distiller,  288. 
Swearing  punished,  262. 
Symmes,  Rev.  Thomas's  "Joco-Seri- 

ous  Dialogue,"  138,  209. 


TANSUR,  William,  "The  Compleat 
Melody  or  Harmony  of  Sion  "  of, 
217 ;  outlandish  musical  terms  of, 
218. 

Tate  and  Brady's  Version,  196 ;  sur- 
vival of,  197. 

IVxt-,  ingenious,  of  the  early  Puritan 
divines,  311  et  seq. ;  bride's  privi- 
lege of  choosing,  312. 

Thomas,  Isaiah,  his  copy  of  the  "  Bay 
Psalm  Book,"  158. 

Tithingman  has  charge  of  the  boys  in 
meeting,  56, 59 ;  a  grotesque  figure, 
66;  his  badge  of  office,  .66;  the 
awakenerof  sleepers,  67;  anecdotes 
of,  67  et  seq. ;  other  duties  of,  73. 

Tobacco,  use  of,  prohibited  on  the 
Sabbath,  251. 

Trumbull's  "Mac  Fingal "  quoted, 
19. 

Trumbull,  Madame  Faith,  her  contri- 
bution of  a  scarlet  cloak,  119. 

Tufts,  Rev.  John,  his  collection  of 
tunes,  207. 

Tunes,  dance,  first  adapted  for  church 
use,  228. 

UNDERBILL,  Captain  John,  public 
confession  of,  235;  his  career,  236; 
his  own  story,  237 ;  letter  of,  238 ; 
his  system  of  spelling,  240. 

VEILS,  Rev.  John  Cotton's  advice  to 

the  women  concerning.  317. 
Vermont  "Blue  Laws,"  248. 
Violins  permitted  in  meeting  if  played 

wrong    end   up,    225;    offence  of, 

225. 
Violoncellos  used    in  churches,   the 

first,  225. 


WAMPUM,  contributions  of,  for  church 

purposes,  117. 
Washington,    Martha,    riding-masks 

bought  for,  by  George,  92. 


INDEX. 


335 


Watches  and  clocks  in  the'early  days, 

77. 
Watts'  Hymns  not  used  until  after  the 

Revolution,  201,  214. 
West,  Dr.,  of  Dartmouth,  anecdote  of, 

203. 

Whipping-post,  12. 
Whitney,   of  Lynn,  his  treatment  of 

church  sleepers,  69. 
Whittier  quoted,  45. 
Wilbraham,  singing-master  appointed 

in,  215. 
Wild,  Rev.  Abijah,  his  remarkable 

domestic  economy,  308. 
Wilde,    Thomas,    co-author    of    the 

""Bay  Psalm-Book,"  145.  149. 


Windows  not  to  be  opened  in  meeting, 

61. 
Windsor,  Conn.,  question  of  singing 

by  rule,  how  settled  in,  209. 
Winthrop,  Governor,  his  account  of 

Captain  Underbill's  public  confes- 
-.  sion  and  repentance,  235. 
Witch-accusers,  meetings  interrupted 

by,  232. 
Women's  clothing  in  the  early  days, 

scantiness  of,  90 ;  the  hoods  and  the 

calash,  91 ;  masks,  92. 
Women  punished  for  profane  speech. 

263. 
Wolves  and  bears,  plentifulness  of, 

11;  reward  for  killing,  11. 


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